THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


AMONG    MEN    AND    HORSES 


BY   THE    SAME   AUTHOR. 


THE  POINTS  OF  THE  HORSE.  A  familiar  Treatise 
on  Equine  Conformation.  Illustrated  by  77  Photographs  and 
205  Drawings.  Foolscap  4to.  345-. 

The  Times. — '  A  writer  of  established  authority  on  all  matters  connected  with  the 
horse.' 

RIDING:    ON   THE   FLAT  AND   ACROSS 
COUNTRY.      A   Guide   to    Practical    Horsemanship.      Third 
Edition,     illustrated  by  J.  H.  OSWALD  BROWN  and  STURGESS. 
Square  8vo.     los.  6d. 
The  Standard. — '  A  master  of  his  subject.' 

ILLUSTRATED  HORSE-BREAKING.  A  descrip- 
tion of  the  Art  of  giving  Horses  Good  Manners  and  Snaffle- 
Bridle  Mouths.  With  51  Original  Illustrations  by  J.  H.  OSWALD 
BROWN.  Imp.  i6mo.  2is. 

The  Field. — '  A  work  which  is  entitled  to  high  praise  as  being  far  and  away  the 
best  reasoned  out  one  on  breaking  under  a  new  system  we  have  seen." 

VETERINARY  NOTES  FOR  HORSE    OWNERS. 

A  Popular  Manual  of  Veterinary  Surgery  and  Medicine.     Fourth 
Edition.     Illustrated.     Crown  8vo.      12s.  6d. 

The  Field. — '  Of  the  many  popular  veterinary  books  which  have  come  under  our 
notice,  this  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  scientific  and  reliable.' 

TRAINING   AND    HORSE    MANAGEMENT  IN 

INDIA.     Fifth  Edition.     Crown  8vo.     9^. 

The  Veterinary  Journal. — '  No  better  guide  could  be  placed  in  the  hands  of 
either  amateur  horseman  or  veterinary  surgeon.' 

SOUNDNESS  AND  AGE   OF  HORSES.     Over  100 

Illustrations.     Crown  8vo.     8s.  6d. 

The  Field. — '  Is  evidently  the  result  of  much  careful  research,  and  the  horseman, 
as  well  as  the  veterinarian,  will  find  in  it  much  that  is  interesting  and  instructive.1 

INDIAN  RA  CING  REMINISCENCES.     Crown  8 vo. 

85.  6d. 

The  Field.—''  The  last  page  comes  all  too  soon.' 

THE  HORSEWOMAN.  A  Practical  Guide  to  Side- 
Saddle  Riding.  By  Mrs  HAYES.  Edited  by  Captain  HAYES. 
Illustrated  by  J.  H.  OSWALD  BROWN.  Square  8vo.  icxr.  6d. 

Saturday  Review. — 'With  a  very  strong  recommendation  of  this  book  as  far  and 
away  the  best  guide  to  side-saddle  riding  that  we  have  seen.' 


W.  TH ACKER  &  CO.,  87  NEWGATE  STREET,  LONDON,  E.G. 


If 


AMONG  MEN  AND  HORSES 


BY 

M.  BORAGE  HAYES,  F.R.C.V.S. 

n 
Late  Captain  *  The  Bujfrs* 

AUTHOR  OF 

'THE  POINTS  OF  THE  HORSE,'  'ILLUSTRATED  HORSE-BREAKING 
'VETERINARY  NOTES  FOR  HORSE  OWNERS,'  ETC. 


Illustrated 

by  Reproductions  from 
Photographs 


NEW  YORK :   DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 
LONDON :   T.  FISHER  UNWIN 

MDCCCXCIV 


(V 


w- 


PREFACE. 


book  is  an  account  of  the  way  in  which 
-L  I  gained  whatever  knowledge  I  may  possess 
about  horses.  Horse-lore  is  an  extremely  difficult 
science  to  acquire,  owing,  I  believe,  to  its  immense 
extent,  and  to  the  difficulty  in  finding  out  the  schools 
in  which  its  various  branches  are  taught.  If  this  story 
of  my  life  among  horses  in  many  lands  fails  to  be 
amusing,  it  may  serve  the  useful  purpose  of  a  guide 
book  to  others  who  know  less  about  horses  than  I 
do,  though  equally  interested  in  them.  In  the 
teaching  books  which  I  have  written  on  Veterinary 
Work,  Riding,  Breaking,  Training,  etc.,  I  have  had 
so  much  to  say  pertinent  to  the  matter  in  hand, 
that  I  have  had  in  them  little  or  no  opportunity  of 
illustrating  principles  by  the  narration  of  my  own 
personal  experience.  The  good  opinion  of  my 
publisher  gives  me  the  happy  chance  of  *  holding 
forth '  about  myself ;  but  instead  of  doing  so  with 
an  air  of  superiority  and  assumed  infallibility,  I  find 
that  I  have  written  as  a  student  ever  seeking  for 
more  light  by  which  to  acquire  knowledge  of  the 
subject  to  which  he  has  devoted  the  best  years  of  his 


viii  Preface. 

life.  As  I  have  often  found  mistakes  to  be  more 
enlightening  than  inspiration,  I  relate  them  both, 
heedless  of  the  fact  that  instead  of  posing  as  a 
prophet,  I  '  give  myself  away  '  as  one  who  not  long 
ago  was  just  as  ignorant  about  my  own  pet  study, 
as  anyone  else.  I  believe  that  the  Public  and  the 
Press  are  inclined  to  receive  reminiscences  with  a 
lenient  and  forgiving  spirit,  as  a  sort  of  dying  speech 
by  those  whose  active  life  is  finished.  I  beg,  how- 
ever, to  disclaim  such  a  concession ;  for  my  wife  and 
I  look  forward  to  having  many  more  adventures  in 
foreign  lands  among  men  and  horses.  The  sad  part 
of  the  thing  is  that  by  the  time  one  acquires  a  large 
amount  of  insight  into  any  difficult  subject,  one  is  too 
old  to  put  it  into  practice.  Happily,  my  stock  of 
equine  lore  is  far  from  being  complete. 

M.   H.  HAYES. 


WOODBINE  COTTAGE, 
MELTON  MOWBRAY,  \stjune  1894, 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

Early  Days  in  Ireland — George  Hawks — Slack-rein  Riding — The  Irish  Famine — 
Old  Style  of  Stable  Management — Putting  the  Corn  into  them — Lord 
Fermoy — James  Hayes,  the  Privateersman — Gentleman  Riders — Dick 
Barry — Sir  John  Astley — Captain  Machell — Dr  Tanner — Mr  Dan  Horgan 
— Billiards — Colonel  Warburton — The  Dutchman — Captain  John  Bayly — 
General  '  Begorra '  Brown, page  I 

CHAPTER   II. 

The  Royal  Military  Academy — School  Riding — Baucher — Pugilism — Bill  Richard- 
son— Joe  Nolan — Rowing — Joe  Sadler — Jim  Pudney — Fairplay  in  England 
— Mitchell — Bat  Mullins,  ....  -  -  -  26 

CHAPTER   III. 

India — Sport  as  a  Training — Cultivation  of  Pluck — Conscience — Swadharm — My 
First  Book — Literary  Style — Life  in  India — Riding  Buckjumpers — Steve 
Margarett — Lord  Lansdowne — Buckjumping  defined — Buffalo  Bill — Acci- 
dents— Fear  of  Death — Sir  Lyon  Playfair — Livingstone — Rustem  Pasha — 
Sir  Edward  Bradford — Sanson — Madame  Dubarry — De  Thou — Cartouche 
— Durman  Dakoits — Balthazar  Gerard — Effect  of  Nervous  Shock  on  Animals 
and  on  Prize-fighters, 34 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Training  Horses  for  Racing — Watering  Horses — Stable  Management — Wasting 
—Charlie  Bailey — Colonel  Locke  Elliott — Ben  Roberts — East  Indian 
Horses — Australian  Horses— Arab  Horses — Sheikh  Esa  bin  Curtas — 
Veterinary  Work — How  Ideas  come  to  Authors — Professor  Williams — 
Salmon  Fishing — Professor  Dick — Dr  Fleming — Veterinary  Surgeons — 
'The  Buffs  '—Leaving  the  Service,  51 


Contents. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  Horse  Registry — Captain  Lynx — A  Book  on  Riding — Mr  Stanley  Berkeley 
—Mr  Alfred  Watson— The  Old  Castilian— Mr  Joe  Radcliffe— Mr  Phil. 
Robinson — Mr  Sinnett— Poker — Mr  Allen — The  Field— -Mr  Comyns  Cole 
— Mr  William  Martin — Mr  Edwin  Martifi — Dalmeny  and  Perkun,  page  66 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Cramming — Militia  Subalterns — A  Book  on  Tactics — Mr  John  Hubert  Moore 
— Horse  Breaking — Writing  New  Editions — Mr  John  Sturgess — A  Book 
on  the  Shape  and  Make  of  Horses — Newmarket — Mr  John  Hammond — 
St  Gatien — Mr  John  Corlett — The  Sporting  Times — 'Gubbins' — 'Shifter' 
— The  Earnings  of  Jockeys  and  Trainers — Irish  Horses  in  England — 
Touting — Mr  Townsend,  the  Horse  Painter — Mr  Oswald  Brown — Mr 
Allan  Sealy — Mr  Sam  Waller — Mr  Briton  Riviere— Mr  Haywood  Hardy 
— Mr  John  Charlton, 76 


CHAPTER   VII. 

Horsebreaking — 'Professor'  Sample  and  his  System  —  Quackery  in  Horse- 
taming—  '  Professor '  Galvayne— Sample's  Show  in  London — Originality 
in  Horse  Taming — Frank  and  Joe,  98 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Colonel  Dudley  Sampson — Return  to  India — Bombay — A  Free  Show — Poona — 
Colonel  Morton  and  the  I4th  Hussars — The  i;th  Lancers — General  Ward  - 
ropp  Calcutta — Horsebreaking  in  a  Class  and  in  a  Public  Performance — 
Causes  of  Success — Learning  as  I  went  on — Horse  Taming  and  Horse- 
breaking— Show  at  Simla — Lord  and  Lady  Dufferin — Lord  Roberts — The 
Duke  of  Bedford — Sir  George  White — Mr  Rudyard  Kipling — '  The  Guides ' 
— Hyderabad  and  its  Native  Noblemen — Improvements  in  Horsebreaking 
— Mr  Jimmy  M'Leod  and  Britomarte — Racing — '  The  Treasure,'  -  1 1 1 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Nellie  Reid — Sample  and  his  Machine — A  Class  at  Woolwich — Mr  Hermann 
Vezin — Ormonde — Mr  John  Porter — Breaking  at  Kingsclere — Schoolwork 
for  Race-horses — Captain  Fitzgerald,  -  -  128 


Contents.  xi 


CHAPTER   X. 

Gibraltar — Malta — Duke  of  York — Duke  and  Duchess  of  Edinburgh — Cairo — 
Colonel  Valentine  Baker — General  Grenfell — Horses  in  Egypt — Ceylon 
and  its  Planters— Breaking  a  Jibber — The  Spanish  Mail — Tubbing — 
Singapore — Mr  Harry  Abrams — Horses  from  Western  Australia — Horse- 
breaking — Savage  Horses— Wood  Flooring  for  Stables,  -  page  137 


CHAPTER   XI. 

The  Blue  Funnel  Line — 'We  have  never  lost  a  Passenger' — Lascar  Crews — 
Steering  on  Land — Chinese  Boatmen  —  Hong  Kong  —  China  Ponies  — 
Racing  in  China — Buckstone  and  Tim  Whiffler — Mr  Fraser  Smith — 
Bandmann — Shanghai — Mongolian  Ponies — Mr  Kelly  Maitland — Small 
Feet  —  Society  in  Shanghai  —  Shanghai  Race  Club  —  Horsebreaking  at 
Shanghai — Rickshaws — Gambling  for  Food — Tientsin — Mr  Butler — Mafoos 
—The  French  Mail— Japan— Hotels  and  Food,  -  -  -  150 


CHAPTER   XII. 

Return  to  India — Starting  a  Newspaper — Society  in  India — The  Counter  Test 
— Planters — Life  in  Calcutta — Public  Opinion  in  India — Indian  Officials 
— Amateur  Actors  —  Miss  Amy  Sherwin  —  Mr  Rudyard  Kipling  as  a 
Flatterer, 178 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

Importation  of  Colonial  Horses  into  India — Horse  Dealing  at  Calcutta — The 
Saddle  selling  the  Horse — Horses  on  Board  Ship — Mr  More  on  Lord 
Combermere — Saddles — Colonial  Horse  Dealers — Mr  John  Stevens — 
Maoris — Teddy  Weekes — Kerouse — Treatment  of  Sprains  in  Horses — 
Racing  in  India — The  Apcars — Lord  William  Beresford — Paper- Chasing 
— A  Jingle — India  as  a  School  for  Riding,  -  -  -  -  186 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

Frank  Fillis — Bill  Hayes — Mickey  Miley — Horse  Photography— Journalism  in 
India — Shows  in  India — Mr  Woodyear — Arthur  Hancock— Captain  Astley 
'  The  Mates' '  Brother, 201 


xii  Contents. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Dan  Kingsland — Argentine  Horses — Sample's  Second  Show  in  London — Another 
Frost — Colonel  Pole  Carew — Taming  Horses  by  Machinery — The  Love 
of  Englishmen  for  Horses — Lecturing  at  the  Polytechnic — Mr  Frank 
Haes — The  Veterinary  Fellowship  Degree — Bound  for  South  Africa — Mr 
Edwin  Ashe — Mr  W.  W.  Reade's  Cricket  Team — Miss  Genevieve  Ward 
and  Mr  Vernon,  -  -  -  page  21 1 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

Horsebreaking  in  Cape  Town — Englishmen  in  South  Africa — Social  Equality 
—No  Style— Sir  Henry  Loch— Port  Elizabeth— A  Stranded  White  Man 
— A  Cockney  and  a  Mule — A  Real  Showman — '  Outside  of  the  Ring, 
please' — Killing  Horses — Rockwell — Driving  Tanden  without  Reins  or 
Traces — A  Cafe  au  lait  Funker — October,  the  Basuto  Kafir — Mr  Hilton 
Barber — South  African  Farmers — Cauliflowers  Three  Shillings  a  Piece 
— South  African  Horses — Horse  Sickness — Defeated  by  a  Mare — Bloem- 
fontein — Orange  Free  State  Boers — Colesberg — Candlemas  and  Belladrum 
— Roaring,  -  220 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

The  Diamond  Fields — Lecturing  at  Kimberley — Badly  reported — The  De  Beers 
Company — 'Squaring'  Governments — 'Trapping' — 'I.  D.  B.' — Taking 
the  '  Sulk '  out  of  a  Horse — The  Horse  and  the  Goat — Equine  Friend- 
ships— '  Wasters '  and  '  Remittance  Men ' — Captain  Goodwood — Broken- 
down  Officers — Manners  and  Customs  in  South  Africa — The  Kimberley 
Exhibition, 235 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

Diamonds,  248 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

South  African  Railways — Coaching  across  the  Veldt — Driving  Twelve  in  Hand — 
Driver  and  Guard — Food  for  Horses — Oat  Hay — Temper  of  South  African 
Horses  —  South  African  Method  of  Horsebreaking  —  Horsemanship  in 
South  Africa  and  Australia — Tying  Horses  to  Posts  in  the  Streets — 
Knee  Haltering— The  Veldt, 252 


Contents.  xiii 


CHAPTER   XX. 

Arrival  at  the  Gold  Fields — Clubs  in  South  Africa — Johannesburg:  its  Jews, 
Englishmen,  and  Boers — Types  of  John  Bull — A  Public  Performance 
under  Difficulties — A  Lady  riding  Buckjumpers — Performances  at  the 
Johannesburg  Circus — Bad  to  Mount — The  Farce  of  Horse  Taming 
Shows  in  England — How  to  make  a  Good  Impression — J.  R.  Couper, 
the  South  African  Champion— Wolff  Bendoff—  'The  Mates"  Son — Mr 
Grey  Rattray— Eggs  Sixpence  a  Piece— Dave  Moss  and  the  'Tape'— 
Johannesburg  'Sharps'— The  Ready  Reckoner  Story— Justice  to  'Nig- 
gers '  in  the  Transvaal— Vichy,  the  Winner  of  the  Johannesburg  Handicap 
— English  Horses  in  South  Africa, page  259 


CHAPTER   XXL 

Racing  in  South  Africa — Polo — Performances  at  Pretoria  —  An  Accident — 
Enthusiasm  of  the  Boers — General  Joubert — Breaking-in  a  Zebra — The 
Language  of  the  Boers — A  Journey  by  Coach — Prize  Fighting  in  South 
Africa — Nickless  and  Kelly — Majuba  Hill  and  Laing's  Nek — Harrismith 
— Hendrik  Truter — Maritzburg — Sir  Charles  Mitchell — Colonel  Swaine 
and  the  nth  Hussars — Horsebreaking  at  Durban — Farewell  to  October — 
The  Climate  of  South  Africa — Return  to  England,  -  279 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

Homeward  Bound — Blazing  Weather — 'Professor'  Norton  Smith — The  Dublin 
Horse  Show — Jumping  —  Paris  —  High  School  Riding — Baucher  —  M. 
Auguste  Raux — Gustave — Teaching  a  Horse  to  Jump — Horse  Taming 
Competition  between  Sample  and  Leon, 296 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

The  Horsewoman — Practical  Lectures  on  Side-Saddle  Riding — The  Wards — 
Fred.  Allen — Teaching  Ladies  to  Ride — Riding  Masters — Learning  from 
Teaching — Improvements  in  Side-Saddles — Safety  Skirts — The  Danger  of 
being  '  Dragged  '—Saddlers — Walsall — Effect  of  Cast-iron  on  the  Franco- 
German  War — The  Row — Lady  Dilke, 318 


xiv  Contents. 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

Accident  to  Gustave  —  Ranelagh  —  Richmond  —  The  Duke  of  Cambridge  — 
Management  of  Horse  Shows — Apathy  of  Londoners  to  Horse  Shows — 
A  Libel  Action — Berlin — Berliner  Tattersall — German  Riding  and  Break- 
ing— The  Thiergarten — Riding  in  Berlin — The  Points  of  the  Horse — Fillis 
and  Germinal  —  Circus  Renz  —  Lectures  —  Rugby  —  Yorkshire  —  Melton 
Mowbray — End,  -  -  page  338 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


CAPTAIN    M.  H.  HAYES,    AND    MRS   HAYES,  .          Frontispiece 

PAGE 
SIR  J.  D.  ASTLEY,    .  13 

MR  JOHN    CORLETT,  85 

'NATHANIEL   GUBBINS,'  .                                                                                                                     %9 

MR  JOHN   PORTER,  133 

MR  J.    MORAY  BROWN,  .                                                                                                      -            299 

MR   F.    V.    GOOCH,  .                                                                                                            •            323 

DUKE   OF    RUTLAND,  .            349 

Also,  Illustrations  on  pp.  I,  26,  34,  51,  66,  76,  97,  98,  in,   128,   137,  150,  178, 
186,  201,  211,  220,  235,  248,  252,  259,  279,  296,  318,  338. 


Photo  by  M.  H.  Hayes. 


AMONG  MEN  AND  HORSES. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Early  Days  in  Ireland — George  Hawkes — Slack-rein  Riding — The  Irish 
Famine  —  Old  Style  of  Stable  Management  —  Putting  the  Corn  into 
them — Lord  Fermoy — James  Hayes,  the  Privateersman — Gentleman 
Riders — Dick  Barry — Sir  John  Astley — Captain  Machell — Dr  Tanner 
— Mr  Dan  Horgan — Billiards — Colonel  Warburton — The  Dutchman — 
Captain  John  Bayly — General  'Begorra'  Brown. 

NOT  long  ago  I  casually  told  an  experienced  journalistic 
friend  that  my  publishers  had  asked  me  to  write  for 
them  a  book  on  dogs.  '  Do  nothing  of  the  kind,'  he  replied. 
*  The  public  regard  you  as  an  authority  on  horses.  If  it  finds 
that  you  take  up  other  subjects,  it  will  imagine  that  you  can- 
not know  as  much  about  horses  as  it  thought  you  did  ;  and  it 
will  hate  you  under  the  idea  that  you  won  its  regard  too 

A 


2  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

easily.'  The  words  I  knew  were  wise  ;  so  I  went  home  to 
repeat  them  to  my  partner.  She,  with  a  woman's  keen  sense 
of  the  practical,  remarked  that  she  had  been  waiting  '  ever  so 
long '  for  a  windfall  to  buy  a  new  dress  ;  that  Gustave's  livery 
bill  had  not  been  paid  for  the  last  five  months;  that  there  was 
nothing  like  having  something  to  'go  on '  with ;  and  that  I 
really  ought  to  get  half-a-dozen  new  shirt  collars  for  myself,  as 
the  old  ones  were  hopelessly  frayed  out  at  the  edges.  Necessity 
prevailing  over  sentiment,  I  produced  the  '  copy/  sent  it  in, 
and  cashed  the  cheque.  Having  done  the  deed,  I  feel  more 
or  less  brazen  about  its  accomplishment,  and  shall  henceforth 
insist  that  the  study  of  many  subjects  is  imperative  for  the 
thorough  acquisition  of  one.  Hardened  in  my  revolt,  I  have 
included  among  the  illustrations  of  The  Points  of  the  Horse, 
photographs  of  an  antelope,  cheetah,  lynx,  bullock,  buffalo, 
and  a  rhinoceros.  I  shall  now  go  a  great  deal  further,  and 
say  that  although  I  have  always  been  fond  of  horses,  and 
have  lived  more  or  less  among  them,  I  have  devoted  myself 
specially  to  them  only  for  the  last  five-and-twenty  years. 

I  was  born  and  bred  in  the  county  of  Cork,  which  is  a  very 
horsey  part  of  the  world.  My  father,  who  had  flour  mills  at 
Ovens,  near  Ballincollig,  and  afterwards  at  Bellgooley,  near 
Kinsale,  kept  a  miscellaneous  lot  of  animals  for  cart-work, 
driving  and  riding  ;  but  he  took  so  little  interest  in  them,  that 
he  was  never  able  to  recognise  any  of  his  own.  Probably  the 
reason  for  his  apathy  to  the  topic  which  absorbed  all  the 
attention  of  his  neighbours,  was  that  he  was  a  singularly 
honest  man,  and  would  never  believe  ill  of  anyone  until  too 
late.  The  story  had  its  usual  ending  :  he  made  the  fortune 
of  others  and  lost  his  own.  My  step-brother  was  devoted  to 
horses.  He  read  Youatt  instead  of  the  Bible.  He  rode  well 
out  hunting  on  any  horse  he  wanted  to  sell.  He  went  to 
Australia,  and  is  now  very  rich.  The  earliest  incident  of 
my  childhood  which  I  can  remember  is  that  of  catching  hold 
of  the  hot  bars  of  the  old-fashioned  fireplace,  in  order  to  steady 
my  uncertain  steps,  while  toddling,  contrary  to  orders,  through 


Early  Days  in  Ireland.  3 

the  kitchen  on  a  voyage  of  discovery.     I  remember  how  I 
yelled,  and  how  my  distracted  mother,  the  nurse  and  maids, 
with  kisses  and  jam  for  my  lips,  and  flour  out  of  the  dredger 
for  my  blistered  hands,  strove  to  comfort  me.     Although  I 
have  often  repeated   many  other  follies,  I  have  never,  since 
that  memorable  morning,  caught  hold  of  the  bars  of  a  grate 
in  which  the  coals  were  burning.      The  punishment  of  the 
disobedience  came  so  quickly  after  the  offence,  that  the  very 
sight  of  an  old-time  fireplace  recalls  to  me  the  pain  of  burned 
fingers.     This  was  my  first  lesson  in  horse-breaking,  and  one 
by  which  I  have  greatly  profited  ;  for  it  admirably  illustrated 
the  sound  principle  of  rendering  a  rebellious  horse  amenable 
to  discipline,  by  making  him  connect  in  his  mind  the  idea  of 
pain  with  that  of  disobedience.     By  it  I  have  made  many  a 
*  difficult '  horse  quiet  to  handle  and  ride.     Baron  de  Curnieu. 
in  his  Lemons  Hippiques,  tells  us  how  the  owner  of  a  vicious 
biter,  acting  on  the  same  principle,  cured  the  animal,  when  it 
rushed  open-mouthed  at  him,  by  presenting  to  it  a  hot  leg 
of  roast  mutton,  which  it  grasped  in  its  teeth,  and  accordingly 
burned  its  gums  and  lips.     Ever  after,  the  horse  seemed  to 
think  that  its   master  was   red-hot ;   for  it  made  no  further 
attempt  to  devour  him.     Next  to  the  kitchen,  my  favourite 
place  of  resort  was  the  stables.     My  pet  groom  used  to  put 
me  on  the  back  of  one  of  the  horses,  where  I  used  to  re- 
main while  he  told   me  highly  -  coloured  stories  of  hunting 
and    steeplechasing.       Throughout    the    Muskerry   country, 
in  which  lay  the  little  village  of  Ovens  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Bride,  the  only  amusements  of  the  gentlemen  and  farmers 
were  those  in  connection  with  horses.      That  fine  old  Irish 
sporting  family  of  Hawkes  lived  next  to  us.      One  of  the 
brothers,  George,  a  one-armed  man,  used  to  hunt  the  Mus- 
kerry hounds,  and  was  considered  one  of  the  best  men  who 
had  ever  crossed  that  big  country  which  lies  between  Cork 
and  Macroom.     He,  like  many  of  the  old  style,  rode  with  a 
loose  rein,  and  trusted  everything  to  the  honour  of  his  horse 
to  carry  him  safely.     Needless  to  say  that  animals  trained  in 


4  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

that  school,  had  their  cleverness  and  intelligence  developed 
to  an  extraordinary  degree,  and  that  they  were  trustworthy 
to  an  extent  which  horses  that  are  taught  to  rely  on  their 
riders  for  direction,  can  never  attain.  They  had  only  one 
fault — a  grave  one,  I  admit,  as  far  as  indifferent  riders  are 
concerned — and  that  was  that  any  interference  with  their 
mouths  when  they  were  in  the  act  of  jumping,  would  be  liable 
to  make  them  fall.  The  fact  of  his  hunter  going  at  a  fence, 
no  matter  how  big  it  was,  never  made  George  Hawkes  catch 
hold  of  the  reins  with  his  only  hand,  when  he  wanted  to  blow 
the  horn  or  put  a  lash  on  the  thong  of  his  whip,  an  operation 
which  he  used  to  do  with  his  fingers  and  teeth,  while  he 
kept  the  reins  hooked  on  his  arm.  One  of  his  brothers,  Mr 
Quail  Hawkes,  has  been  a  well-known  coursing  judge  for 
many  years,  and  still  follows  the  hounds,  whose  music  first 
charmed  his  fancy  considerably  over  sixty  years  ago. 

Men  talk  of  lifting  horses  over  fences  and  of  making  them 
take-off  where  they  like.  They  even  accuse  their  best  friends 
of  throwing  horses  down.  That  reminds  me  of  a  story  which 
is  not  quite  new,  but  which  is  perhaps  fresh  enough  to  serve 
its  turn  here.  A  man  once  brought  a  horse  with  a  pair  of 
broken  knees  to  a  veterinary  surgeon,  and  told  him  that  his 
groom,  being  a  bad  rider,  had  thrown  the  animal  down. 
*  You'll  do  me  a  great  favour,'  replied  the  veterinary  surgeon, 
'  if  you'll  let  me  have  that  groom.  I'll  be  a  kind  master  to 
him,  and  will  pay  him  a  bit  extra  ;  for  he'll  save  me  a  lot  of 
money.  I  have  often  to  get  horses  thrown  for  operations, 
and  this  strong  fellow  will  be  able  to  do  what  it  now  takes 
three  men  to  perform  for  me.'  Whatever  ideas  we  may  have 
about  regulating  a  horse's  speed  when  he  is  coming  up  to  a 
fence,  it  is  incontrovertible  that  the  less  we  interfere  with  his 
mouth  when  he  is  in  the  act  of  jumping,  the  less  chance  will 
there  be  of  an  accident.  The  great  difficulty  most  men  have 
in  giving,  as  they  ought  to  do,  a  horse  the  free  use  of  his  head 
at  that  critical  moment,  is,  that  if  they  have  not  the  reins  to 
hang  on  by,  they  would  probably  fall  off.  If  any  of  my 


A  Foxs  Brush.  5 

readers  wish  to  test  the  correctness  of  this  opinion  of  mine, 
they  should  put  one  of  these  rein-grippers  on  a  clever  jumper 
in  a  riding-school,  so  that  the  animal  may  not  run  out ;  erect 
a  fence  say,  four  feet  and  a  half  high  ;  take  off  the  bridle ; 
drive  the  horse  over  the  obstacle  ;  and  then  they  will  see  who 
is  right.  I  may  mention,  in  order  to  harden  the  heart  of  any 
waverer,  that  my  wife,  and  ladies  she  has  taught  to  ride, 
have  done  this  feat  scores  of  times  without  making  the 
slightest  movement  in  the  saddle.  The  serious  part  of  the 
evil  of  hanging  on  by  the  reins  when  a  horse  is  jumping,  is 
not  that  it  is  apt  to  make  him  blunder  by  interfering  with  him  ; 
but  that,  by  punishing  his  mouth,  it  is  liable  to  convert  him 
into  a  confirmed  refuser,  or  into  a  dangerous  rusher. 

Another  point  of  good  riding  which  was  early  impressed 
upon  me  by  experienced  cross-country  men,  was  that,  when 
going  over  a  fence,  one  should  draw  back  the  feet,  so  as  to 
avoid  the  shock  which,  if  the  knees  were  kept  straight,  would 
be  transmitted,  on  landing,  from  the  stirrup  irons  to  the  pelvis, 
through  the  legs,  and  which,  being  in  a  direction  behind  the 
centre  of  gravity,  would  tend  to  make  it  rotate  forwards. 

My  mother  was  a  Scotch-woman  of  broad-minded  charity, 
and  of  refined  and  educated  tastes,  which  did  not  include 
horses  and  hunting.  She  loved  flowers,  animals,  and  scenery, 
and  was  delighted  to  have  the  opportunity  of  showing  those 
friends  of  ours  who  came  to  stay  with  us,  from  time  to  time, 
the  beauties  of  stream  and  woodland  by  the  banks  of  the 
Bride  and  Lee.  On  one  occasion  she  took  a  couple  of 
English  ladies,  who  were  on  a  visit  with  us,  close  to  the 
kennels,  in  order  to  obtain  a  particularly  pretty  view  of  the 
country.  On  hearing  one  of  the  ladies  exclaim,  '  How  beauti- 
ful ! '  the  old  huntsman,  who  happened  to  be  standing  by, 
replied,  pointing  to  a  fox's  brush  which  was  nailed  to  the 
door,  and  which  he  supposed  was  the  object  of  admiration, 
'  True  for  you,  ma'am,  it  is  a  beautiful  one ;  but  if  you  will 
come  round  to  the  stables,  I  will  show  you  one  twice  as 
handsome.'  And  thus  men  and  women  go  through  the  world, 


6  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

thinking  that  the  subjects  which  fill  their  minds  are  interest- 
ing to  other  people.  When  the  terrible  famine  and  pestilence 
of  1847-8  afflicted  Ireland,  my  parents  had  wooden  sheds 
constructed  in  the  grounds  near  our  house  for  the  accom- 
modation of  the  starving  and  fever-stricken  poor,  and  aided 
by  our  servants,  tended  and  fed  them  with  their  own  hands. 
Our  part  of  the  country  was  very  sorely  stricken.  Helpless 
women  and  children  and  gaunt  men  would  drag  themselves, 
cold  and  weary,  to  our  door,  and  when  quickly  taken  down 
into  the  kitchen  and  given  a  bowl  of  soup  or  warm  milk, 
would,  after  saying  a  word  or  two  of  grateful  thanks,  often 
stretch  themselves  in  front  of  the  comforting  fire,  and  with 
a  smile  of  peace  and  relief  on  their  wan  faces  would  gently 
pass  away  out  of  a  world  of  pain  and  misery.  I  can  just 
remember  those  terrible  scenes  of  uncomplaining  suffering 
on  one  hand,  and  unselfish  devotion  on  the  other.  The 
famine  fever  was  so  virulent,  and  help  so  feeble,  that  the 
dead  lay  rotting  by  the  sides  of  the  roads,  and  the  burials 
in  the  churchyard  had  to  be  conducted  so  hastily,  that  many 
of  the  corpses  were  only  partially  covered  with  earth.  The 
calamity  was  so  widespread  and  sudden,  that  much  of  the 
generous  aid  which  came  from  England  and  elsewhere  was 
woefully  misapplied.  Immense  quantities  of  Indian  corn 
meal  were  imported  and  distributed  among  the  starving 
Irish,  who,  being  entirely  unacquainted  with  its  use,  tried 
to  cook  it  in  the  way  they  had  been  accustomed  to  prepare 
their  familiar  diet  of  oatmeal.  As  the  amount  of  boiling  suit- 
able to  the  latter  was  altogether  insufficient  for  the  former ; 
the  new  kind  of  porridge,  instead  of  proving  nutritious,  acted 
as  a  direct  irritant  to  the  poor,  weakened  stomachs  of  the 
people,  and  killed  more  than  it  saved.  After  the  distress  had 
passed  away,  we  left  Ovens  and  went  to  Bellgooley. 

Our  new  abode  at  Bellgooley  was  about  four  miles  from 
Kinsale,  and  about  thirteen  from  Cork.  Mr  Tom  Knolles 
of  Oaklands  hunted  the  country,  until  he  was  nearly 
ninety  years  of  age  ;  and  his  brother,  an  old  retired  naval 


Shoeing  Horses.  7 

officer,  used  to  rattle  *  puss '  out  of  her  form  with  a  musical 
pack  of  beagles,  which  he  followed  on  foot.  I  often  went 
with  my  father,  who  was  accustomed  to  drive  every 
week  day  to  and  from  his  office  in  Cork ;  though  my 
proper  work  was  going  to  school  with  my  sister  in  an  old 
*  inside  outside '  car  to  Kinsale.  The  amusements  of  my 
childhood  were  trout-fishing  and  riding  every  horse  upon 
which  I  could  get  a  leg  up.  Being  a  good  deal  on  the  road, 
I  saw  something  of  the  evil  effects  of  the  old  system  of  shoe- 
ing. At  that  time,  shoeing  smiths  liked  to  lower  the  heels 
of  the  horses'  feet  as  much  as  they  could,  in  order  to  get 
frog  pressure ;  but  did  not  think  it  necessary,  also,  to  lower 
the  toes,  so  as  to  equalise  the  work  between  the  respective 
muscles  which  bend  and  straighten  the  joints  of  the  legs. 
They  thinned  the  sole  until  it  would  yield  to  the  pressure 
of  the  thumb,  and  to  show  their  skill  at  carving,  they  pared 
away  the  frog.  To  further  aid  in  the  softening  of  the  sole 
and  frog,  the  grooms  and  '  strappers '  used  to  keep  the  feet 
of  the  horses  during  the  night  stuffed  with  cow-dung,  or 
some  other  favourite  filth.  The  result  of  such  practice  was, 
I  need  hardly  say,  that  the  majority  of  the  cart  and  harness 
horses  were  more  or  less  footsore  ;  that  they  were  liable  to 
fall  if  they  happened  to  tread  on  a  stone  ;  that  they  frequently 
'  picked  up '  stones  ;  and  that  their  feet  were  hardly  ever  free 
from  thrush.  The  evil  effects  of  this  bad  method  of  shoeing 
were  not  so  apparent  in  hunters,  whose  work  was  on  softer 
ground  than  that  over  which  animals  in  shafts  had  to  travel. 
This  pernicious  system  was  less  the  outcome  of  ignorance 
than  of  an  endeavour  to  shoe  horses  according  to  wrong 
principles  laid  down  by  veterinary  surgeons.  The  gross 
faults  in  the  construction  of  the  shoes  were  slurred  over, 
as  much  as  possible,  by  the  free  use  of  the  rasp  on  the 
outside  of  the  hoof,  and  by  making  the  heated  iron  burn 
a  bed  for  itself  in  the  '  wall.'  The  real  trouble  and  danger 
began  when  the  smith  proceeded  to  '  drive '  the  nails,  which, 
being  hand-made,  were  of  various  patterns,  sizes  and  textures. 


8  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

As  the  foot  had  been  pared  down  to  its  utmost  limit  of  safety, 
the  ill-constructed  nails,  which  were  not  infrequently  made  of 
defective  and  unsuitable  iron,  were  liable  under  the  blows  of 
the  hammer,  to  take  unexpected  directions  ;  to  split  in  two, 
one  part  coming  out  in  correct  position  to  be  clinched,  the 
other  penetrating  the  sensitive  tissues  ;  and  to  perform  other 
eccentric  and  hurtful  feats.  The  careful  smith  had  therefore 
to  drive  the  nails  in  fear,  if  not  in  trembling,  and  to  anxiously 
listen  to  the  fall  of  the  hammer  on  the  nail  head,  ready  to 
stay  his  hand  and  draw  the  nail,  if  a  dull  sound,  which  would 
indicate  the  entrance  of  the  nail  into  soft  tissue,  were  emitted. 
The  necessity  for  the  detection  of  this  dull  sound  was  the  first 
and  only  useful  hint  I  received  about  shoeing  in  the  village 
smithy.  The  general  adoption  during  late  years  of  machine- 
made  nails,  to  say  nothing  of  machine-made  shoes,  has  im- 
mensely improved  the  shoeing  of  horses,  which  now  leaves 
but  little  to  be  desired.  The  arbitrary  and  often  unjust  law 
of  making  forge-masters  responsible  for  the  'pricking'  of 
horses  shod  at  their  smithies,  despite  the  proof  that  there  had 
been  no  neglect  in  skill  or  care,  no  doubt  works  well  in  the 
advancement  of  this  art.  Another  point  of  veterinary  science 
in  which  we  have  greatly  improved  on  the  practice  of  our 
ancestors,  is  the  treatment  of  wounds,  which  they  were  wont 
to  bathe,  poultice  arid  stimulate  by  the  application  of  various 
'  oils,'  with  the  object  of  producing  what  they  were  pleased  to 
call  '  laudable  pus.'  We,  on  the  contrary,  have  learned  that 
suppuration,  being  accompanied  by  the  destruction  of  valu- 
able tissue,  is  the  very  thing  which  we  ought  to  try  to  prevent 
in  such  cases,  and  accordingly  we  adopt  as  a  rule,  '  dry  dress- 
ing.' 

At  the  time  of  which  I  am  writing,  eye  diseases  and  con- 
sequently blindness  were  very  common  among  Irish  horses, 
owing  to  the  horribly  unsanitary  conditions  under  which 
they  were  kept.  In  many  instances,  the  horse's  bed  was 
a  dung  heap,  and  in  all,  special  precautions  were  taken 
to  prevent  the  existence  of  free  ventilation.  Not  alone  was 


Stable  Management.  9 

the  chronic  disease  of  the  eyes  which  is  popularly  known  as 
moon-blindness,  engendered  by  the  evolved  ammonia  and 
vitiated  air ;  but  the  mares  and  sires  so  afflicted,  conferred 
on  their  offspring  a  hereditary  tendency  to  this  complaint. 
Under  such  stable  conditions,  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  chest  troubles,  asthma  and  chronic  bronchitis,  for  in- 
stance, were  rife  among  these  horses.  Besides,  the  germs  of 
'  stable  fever '  were  permanent  residents  in  these  abodes,  into 
which,  no  young  horse  fresh  from  grass,  could  be  put  without 
his  becoming  afflicted  by  this  disease.  The  principles  of 
proper  stable  sanitation  require  no  special  study ;  for  we 
have  in  ourselves  a  sufficient  guide  to  their  just  comprehen- 
sion. If  a  stable  be  so  clean,  well-drained,  and  properly 
ventilated,  that  an  ordinary,  cleanly,  healthy  man  or  woman 
could,  without  well-founded  repugnance,  eat  their  meals  and 
sleep  in  a  stall,  we  may  feel  fairly  confident  that  it  is  good 
enough  for  a  horse  to  live  in.  But  if,  after  personal  experi- 
ence, we  find  that  the  air  is  close  and  there  are  bad  smells 
in  it,  we  may  be  equally  certain  that  it  is  no  place  in  which 
to  house  a  horse.  Ventilation  with  horses,  as  with  men, 
should  be  obtained  (except  in  the  tropics)  without  draughts, 
which,  in  cold  and  temperate  climates,  are  apt  to  give  rise 
to  coughs  and  colds.  The  worst  kept  stables  as  far  as  neglect 
of  proper  ventilation  went,  were  those  in  which  the  old  Irish 
post-horses  lived.  I  remember  one  four-horse  coach  in  which 
there  was  only  one  eye  capable  of  seeing  with,  and  that 
belonged  to  the  one-eyed  driver.  Much  of  the  coaching  was 
done  with  Bianconi's  quaint-looking  conveyances,  which  were 
long  and  large  four-wheeled  outside  cars.  The  horses  of  all 
these  coaches  were  terrible  cripples  with  hardly  a  sound  leg 
among  twenty  of  them  ;  and  yet  when  they  were  warmed  up 
with  a  mile  or  two's  travel,  they  would  face  their  collars, 
stride  along,  and  stay  their  distance  in  gallant  style.  I 
remember  asking  an  old  coachman,  by  whose  side  I  often 
sat  on  the  box  seat  and  whose  utterances  I  treasured  in  my 
youthful  memory,  how  it  was  that  such  ancient  and  appar- 


io  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

ently  used-up  *  crocks,'  had  such  fire  and  bottom.  *  It's  the 
five  or  six  years'  corn  they  have  in  them  that  does  it,'  he 
replied.  This  answer  has  been  one  of  the  most  useful  hints 
about  horses  I  have  ever  received ;  for  its  application  to 
horses  I  have  trained,  has  enabled  me  to  win  many  races 
I  would  otherwise  have  lost.  Instead  of  '  throwing  horses 
by,'  'letting  them  down,'  and  allowing  them  to  convert  the 
most  of  their  muscle  into  fat,  which  would  have  to  be  subse- 
quently worked  off  with  probably  disastrous  effects  to  the 
suspensory  ligaments  and  back  tendons,  I  tried  as  far  as 
possible  to  keep  the  corn  in  them.  Without  attempting  any 
physiological  discussion,  I  may  broadly  say  that  different 
kinds  of  food  produce  different  qualities  of  tissue.  Of  this  fact 
I  had  a  good  practical  proof  on  seeing  the  manner  in  which 
bacon  produced  from  pigs  which  had  been  fed  principally  on 
horse  flesh,  conducted  itself  on  being  fried  or  boiled  ;  for  the 
fat  all  turned  into  grease,  and  the  lean  into  sodden  strings. 
I  may  mention  that  these  hogs  had  been  kept  in  the  yard  of 
a  knacker  who  thought  he  might  thus  economically  use  the 
stuff  which  was  not  good  enough  for  the  manufacture  of 
saveloys.  If  people  knew  how  much  horse  offal  is  given  to 
pigs,  they  would  be  more  chary  than  they  are  of  the  pro- 
miscuous eating  of  pork,  bacon,  sausages  and  hams. 

In  those  days,  as  at  the  present  time,  people  in  Ireland 
regarded  horses  almost  entirely  from  a  jumping  point  of  view; 
and  horsemanship,  as  riding.  In  these  two  branches,  they 
had  every  reason  to  be  proud  of  their  animals  and  of  them- 
selves ;  although  in  other  and  equally  important  points  of 
horse  knowledge,  they  were  singularly  ignorant.  They  de- 
spised driving,  except  when  they  were  drunk  and  going  at 
full  gallop  down  a  hill  as  steep  as  the  side  of  a  house.  If  a 
farmer  had  a  young  hunter  for  sale,  and  one  asked,  as  an 
Englishman  would  naturally  do,  if  he  went  in  harness,  the 
farmer  would  feel  grossly  insulted.  Their  shoeing  was  a 
mutilation  ;  their  veterinary  practice,  a  relic  of  barbarism  ; 
their  ideas  on  '  make  and  shape,'  a  contradiction  based  on 


Lord  Fermoy.  1 1 

the  idiotic  aphorism  that  'horses  run  in  all  shapes' ;  and  their 
breaking,  an  implicit  reliance  on  the  dispensations  of  a  fickle 
Providence.  When  I  was  about  twelve  years  old,  we  left  the 
country  and  went  to  live  in  the  suburbs  of  Cork,  where  I 
devoted  more  of  my  time  to  running,  rowing  and  other 
athletic  sports  than  to  horses ;  although  I  went  out  from  time 
to  time  with  Lord  Fermoy's  hounds,  and  the  Duhallows. 
Lord  Fermoy  was  a  fine  fellow  and  a  rare  good  judge  of  a 
horse.  As  he  was  not  rich,  he  seldom  gave  more  than  a 
hundred  pounds  for  a  hunter,  at  which  price  his  eighteen 
stone  of  bone  and  muscle  was  carried  in  a  manner  that  it 
would  take  five  or  six  times  that  amount  to  do  at  the  present 
time.  In  those  days  in  the  county  of  Cork,  £60  was  re- 
garded as  a  price  that  ought  to  buy  a  first  flight  hunter  which 
could  jump,  gallop,  stay  and  carry  weight  —  £200,  now,  is 
nearer  the  figure.  I  remember  a  particularly  fine  hunter  which 
Lord  Fermoy  had,  called  Bullagaun,  and  named  after  a 
small  place  that  belonged  to  him,  near  Monkestovvn,  '  on  the 
pleasant  waters  of  the  River  Lee/  in  the  county  of  Cork. 
Strange  to  say,  after  an  interval  of  thirty  years,  that  name 
fell  on  my  ears  one  morning  by  the  Calcutta  racecourse 
when  I  was  looking  at  a  smart  racing  pony  being  measured. 
'  Bullagaun,'  I  muttered,  half  to  myself,  *  was  the  name  of  a 
great  horse  I  once  knew.'  '  And  he  belonged  to  Lord  Fer- 
moy,' added,  greatly  to  my  surprise,  a  tall,  fine-looking  young 
fellow  who  was  standing  near,  and  who  happened  to  be  the 
owner  of  the  pony.  Mutual  explanations  followed,  and  I 
learned  that  the  gentleman  to  whom  I  was  speaking  was 
Captain  The  Honourable  Ulick  Roche,  who  was  Lord  Fer- 
moy's son.  He  told  me  that  the  original  Bullagaun  was 
bought  by  his  father  for  £200,  sold  by  him  for  1500  guineas, 
and  subsequently  fetched  in  Paris  2500  guineas,  which  is  the 
highest  price  I  have  ever  heard  that  has  been  given  for  a 
bona  fide  hunter.  Lord  Fermoy  used  to  encourage  horse- 
breeding  among  his  tenants,  and  was  always  ready  to  buy 
from  them  any  likely  colt  or  filly  they  bred.  Writing  about 


i  2  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

Lord  Fermoy  and  his  son  reminds  me  that  I  am  a  sort  of  a 
*  thirty-first  cousin  '  of  theirs  ;  for  my  great-great-grandfather, 
George  Hayes  of  Ballivooher,  married  a  Miss  Johanna  Roche 
of  that  family.  Her  son,  James  Hayes,  belonged  to  a  letter 
of  marque  during  the  French  War  of  his  time  ;  was  taken 
by  the  enemy  after  a  long  privateering  career,  and  kept  in  a 
French  prison  for  seven  years.  He  and  a  fellow-prisoner,  the 
father  of  an  old  doctor  in  Bandon,  were  liberated  through  the 
influence,  at  the  Court  of  France,  of  his  maternal  cousins. 

In  my  early  days,  the  Gentleman  Rider  was  sternly  re- 
pressed by  the  professional,  who,  like  the  Cusacks,  Carols, 
Noble  and  others,  regarded  gratuitous  chase  riding  as  an 
unwarrantable  attempt  to  take  the  bread,  or  rather  the  whisky, 
out  of  their  mouths.  Poor  Captain  Barnard  Shaw,  who  was 
so  fond  of  getting  a  mount,  that  he  would  have  gone  a  hun- 
dred miles  to  ride  even  a  loser,  got  killed  by  a  couple  of 
jockeys,  who  closed  in  on  him  at  a  fence,  and  who  had  vowed 
that  unless  he  would  stop  riding  they  would  '  do '  for  him. 
A  stronger  executive  than  that  which  ruled  the  Irish  turf  in 
those  days,  has  knocked  that  monstrous  idea  out  of  the  heads 
of  the  Irish  pros.,  who  have  often  now  to  resign  their  pride  of 
place  to  such  amateurs  as  the  Moores  and  Beasleys.  At  the 
time  about  which  I  am  writing,  the  best  G.  R.  of  the  South 
of  Ireland  was  Mr  Dick  Barry  of  Carrigtwohill,  who  used  to 
ride  his  own  horses  and  those  of  his  father.  He  had  extra- 
ordinary bad  luck  at  Punchestown  with  that  fine  chaser, 
Bounceaway,  who,  in  the  run-in,  after  having  jumped  all  the 
fences  and  was  coming  in  alone,  put  its  foot  in  an  old  wheel- 
rut  in  the  middle  of  the  field,  fell  down  and  lost  the  race. 
The  chief  fault  of  my  countrymen,  I  may  remark,  is  their  too 
ready  submission  to  the  dictates  of  scoundrels,  especially 
those  of  their  own  kith  and  kin.  Those  of  us  who  have 
studied  history,  know  that  the  sympathy  of  Irishmen  for 
criminals  is  a  legacy  handed  down  from  the  time  when 
English  law  meant,  to  them,  injustice.  Although  it  takes 
many  years  to  entirely  efface  from  the  minds  of  a  people 


Photo  by  H.  K.  Sherborn,  Newmarket 


4»          Sir  John  Astley.  \  5 

the  evil  effects  of  oppressive  legislation,  the  traditions  of 
which  continue  to  be  handed  down  from  father  to  son  for 
several  generations ;  we  may  be  confident  that  the  national 
sentiment  which  rebelled  against  injustice,  will  become  de- 
voted to  laws,  the  working  of  which  is  found  to  ensure  to  the 
people  justice  and  order.  With  all  their  faults,  the  Corkonians 
of  those  days  had  one  strong  claim  to  be  considered  sports- 
men, namely,  they  paid  their  debts  of  honour.  Although  I 
have  already  told  in  The  Pink  'Un  a  story  about  Sir  John 
Astley  in  this  connection  ;  I  trust  I  may  be  pardoned  for 
repeating  it  here.  '  The  Mate/  who  had  proved  himself  the 
champion  sprinter  of  the  British  Army  in  the  Crimea,  made, 
in  the  spring  of  1858,  a  match,  which  he  won,  with  a  Mr 
Taylor,  who  had  beaten  Captain  Machell,  and  who,  as  a 
pedestrian,  was  the  pride  of  the  County  of  Cork.  The  race 
came  off  in  the  Barrack  Square,  and  the  course,  100  yards, 
was  roped  in.  Before  the  men  toed  the  line,  Captain  Astley, 
with  an  overcoat  covering  his  tights,  walked  up  and  down  the 
enclosure,  round  the  sides  of  which  were  thronged  hundreds 
of  Cork  sportsmen,  taking  all  the  bets  he  could  get  on  ;  and  he 
would  not '  peel '  as  long  as  there  was  anyone  left  to  answer 
his  challenge:  'Who'll  back  the  Irishman?'  In  his  usual 
impetuous  way,  he  omitted  to  book  any  of  his  bets  ;  but  his 
trust  in  the  honour  of  his  opponents  was  not  misplaced ; 
for  everyone  of  them  came  up  after  the  event  had  been  de- 
cided and  *  weighed  in.'  Little  Jimmy  Paterson,  *  the  Flying 
Tailor,'  used  to  train  The  Mate  and  give  him  his  gallops. 
Eight  years  later,  I  helped  to  avenge  the  honour  of  Cork 
by  training  a  young  farmer,  whom  I  matched  to  run  no 
yards  against  Captain  Marryatt  of  the  65th  Regiment,  who 
at  that  time  was  one  of  the  fastest  amateur  sprinters  in 
England.  With  a  novice  who  was  a  yard  better  than  '  even 
time'  for  100  yards,  I  had  a  good  thing  against  a  10^  second 
man.  Our  side  won  over  this  match  more  money  from  the 
Sassenach,  than  The  Mate  and  his  friends  had  carried  away. 
Captain  Machell,  who  was  in  the  I4th  Regiment,  and  who 


1 6  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

was  stationed  in  Ireland  at  the  time  about  which  I  am  writ- 
ing, was  a  fast  runner ;  although  his  chief  forte  was  hopping, 
at  which  accomplishment  he  had  no  equal  in  England.  I 
have  often  heard  people  talk  of  his  hopping  on  to  the  chim- 
ney-piece of  the  Kildare  Street  Club,  which,  if  I  remember 
rightly,  was  about  5  feet  from  the  ground.  He  was  also 
known  to  have  hopped  over  a  billiard  table.  The  I4th  Regi- 
ment also  possessed  a  very  good  all-round  man  in  Captain 
Aubrey  Patton. 

In  the  late  Fifties  and  early  Sixties  there  was  keen  rivalry 
between  the  Cork  athletes  and  English  visitors.  The  arrival 
of  the  celebrated  London  Rowing  Club  four-oared  crew,  of 
which  Playfair  was  stroke  and  Cassamajor  bow,  was  an  event 
which  stirred  into  excitement  every  man,  woman  and  child  of 
our  sporting  city.  As  might  have  been  expected,  the  uncon- 
quered  strangers  were  too  good  for  the  local  men.  The  visit 
was  justly  regarded  as  a  high  compliment ;  and  the  defeat,  as 
a  stimulant  to  increased  exertion.  During  the  seven  years 
which  followed,  the  River  Lee  in  the  summer  time  was  the 
busy  scene  of  hard  training  and  well-contested  boat  races,  in 
some  of  which  I  rowed.  There  were  two  great  rival  clubs  : 
the  Glenbrook  and  the  City.  The  members  of  the  former,  of 
which  I  was  one,  regarded  themselves  as  gentlemen  amateurs, 
and  the  latter,  as  amateurs  without  the  prefix ;  for  our  rivals 
— and  worthy  ones  they  frequently  proved  themselves  to  be — 
were  chiefly  recruited  from  shop  assistants  ;  while  we  con- 
sidered ourselves  to  be  untainted  by  trade,  in  centra-distinction 
to  commerce.  The  City  men,  not  to  be  behindhand  in  a  vice 
which  has  been  castigated  by  Thackeray,  drew  the  '  line '  be- 
tween themselves  and  the  members  of  a  mechanics'  rowing 
club.  The  fact  of  the  beautiful  situation  of  our  club  on  the 
river,  close  to  Queenstown,  prompted  its  committee  to  en- 
large and  improve  the  club-house,  until  they  had  made  it  a 
very  pleasant  resort  for  social  meetings,  with  the  result  that 
its  luxurious  surroundings  killed  love  of  rowing,  which  needs 
for  its  highest  development,  self-denial  and  hard  work.  The 


Jack  Levitt.  \  7 

question  of  the  difference  between  amateurs  and  professionals 
has  now  no  further  interest  to  me,  so  I  can  afford  to  laugh 
at  it.  In  art,  literature,  and  science  there  is  no  distinction 
between  the  two.  The  amateur  actor,  the  amateur  photo- 
grapher, the  amateur  cricketer,  or  the  amateur  athlete  who 
thinks  he  is  socially  superior  to  his  professional  rivals,  because 
he  is  an  amateur  according  to  certain  arbitrary  rules,  either 
values  his  social  position — generally,  a  miserably  poor  one  at 
best — more  than  his  art,  or  by  deliberately  sailing  under  false 
colours  tries  to  make  more  money  out  of  it  than  he  could  do 
as  a  professional.  The  instances  at  hand  are  so  numerous 
that  mention  of  some  would  be  invidious  to  others.  When 
Sir  John  Astley  and  Captain  Machell  used  to  run,  it  was 
rightly  considered  that  amateur  peds.  might  contest  money 
matches  against  each  other,  so  long  as  they  *  found '  their  own 
coin  ;  just  as  an  amateur  billiard  player  of  the  present  day 
would  incur  no  social  ban  on  account  of  having  a  bet  on  a 
game. 

What  villanies  have  been  perpetrated  on  the  cinder  path  ! 
When  I  was  *  cramming,'  as  a  boy,  in  Dublin  for  the  army, 
I  entered  for  a  1 50  yards  handicap,  which  had  been  organised 
by  Jack  Levitt,  the  old  ten-mile  champion.  Being  unknown, 
I  got  14  yards  start  and  won  easily.  When  I  came  next  day 
to  run  in  the  second  round,  I  found  that  I  had  been  put  back 
10  yards,  and  that  a  very  smart  Englishman  who  had  run 
the  previous  day  in  faultless  style  and  had  won  his  heat  in 
a  trot,  had  been  moved  forward  the  same  distance.  I  lost, 
and  thought  no  more  about  the  affair,  until  about  a  couple 
of  years  afterwards  I  found  myself  in  the  Bow  Running 
Grounds,  looking  at  the  decision  of  a  sprint  handicap. 
Thinking  that  I  had  seen  on  some  previous  occasion  the  scratch 
man,  who  was  giving  long  starts  to  the  other  professionals, 
I  asked  one  of  my  running  acquaintances  who  he  was. 
'  That's  So-and-So/  he  replied ;  '  he  is  about  an  even-timer 
and  is  a  great  pall  of  Jack  Levitt.'  And  then  I  went  away 
proud  and  happy  with  the  consciousness  that  at  least  one 

B 


1 8  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

man  had  a  good  opinion  of  me,  and  that  was  Jack  Levitt, 
who,  in  case  of  accidents,  had  made  me  concede  5  yards 
to  one  of  the  fastest  sprinters  in  England.  Although  the 
old  champion  and  his  friend,  no  doubt,  divided  what  ought 
to  have  been  my  handicap  money,  as  well  as  the  bets  ;  still 
Levitt  was  a  man  of  real  *  grit/  which  he  nobly  proved  by 
losing  his  life,  in  a  heroic  attempt  to  save  some  persons  from 
drowning.  Levitt's  chief  rival  in  the  Fifties  was  Jackson, 
who  got  the  name  of  the  American  Deer,  from  the  great 
race  of  20  miles  which  he  ran  about  the  year  1847,  in  the 
States,  against  a  large  number  of  famous  American-Indian 
runners.  Some  of  the  Redskins  kept  the  lead  up  to  15  miles, 
when  Jackson  went  to  the  front  and  won  under  two  hours. 
He  is  still  alive  and  is  about  seventy-five  years  old.  He 
continued  running  in  fine  form  until  he  was  well  over  forty. 
I  do  not  think  that  there  was  ever  a  better  long-distance 
runner  (not  even  excepting  Hazael  or  Cummings)  than  he 
was  when  at  his  best.  An  immense  impetus  was  given  to 
pedestrianism  in  about  the  year  1860,  when  George  Martin, 
the  great  hurdle  race  professional,  brought  over  Deerfoot 
alias  Louis  Bennett,  the  Canadian  half-breed.  Martin  was 
a  fine  showman,  and  used  to  '  kid '  the  public  by  equipping 
Deerfoot  in  paint,  feathers,  mocassins,  and  tights.  He  used 
to  then  let  him  loose  on  some  public  running  ground,  like 
that  of  Hackney  Wick,  when  the  supposed  Redskin  would 
whoop  and  yell  in  the  manner  described  by  Fenimore 
Cooper,  while  he  bounded  along.  When  Martin  thought 
he  had  exercised  his  legs  enough,  he  used  to  run  into  the 
middle  of  the  course,  stretch  out  his  arms,  shout  out  some 
gibberish,  which  passed  for  Cherokee  or  Iroquois,  and  try 
to  stop  the  '  wild  man/  who  used  to  act  the  part  to  perfection 
and  take  a  lot  of  catching  and  holding.  After  running  him 
at  various  public  grounds,  Martin  took  him  round  the  country 
with  a  large  tent  and  a  '  stable '  of  several  of  the  great 
runners  of  the  time,  such  as  Bill  Lang,  Teddy  Mills,  Jack- 
son, Mackinstray,  and  Richards.  This  tour  paid  well,  until 


Sprinting.  1 9 

Jackson  being  dissatisfied  with  his  treatment,  went  to  law, 
and  told  in  Court  how  Martin  'worked'  the  supposed 
matches.  Pedestrianism  is  a  poor  game  now.  I  remember 
C.  Smith,  an  American,  getting  on  a  good  mark,  and  winning 
a  big  Sheffield  handicap  in  1880.  Having  been  put  back  a 
long  way,  he  bided  his  time  for  eight  years,  until  he  got  so 
placed,  that  he  thought  he  was  certain  of  winning.  He  came 
in  first,  right  enough  ;  but  the  judge,  for  reasons  best  known 
to  himself,  awarded  the  race  to  the  second  man.  Smith 
being  then  thirty-one  years  old,  and  having  a  comfortable 
business  of  his  own,  thought  it  best  to  stick  to  it,  and  to 
give  up  sprinting. 

About  a  year  after  Sir  John  Astley's  visit  there  were 
some  open  foot  races  held  at  Passage  near  Cork,  at  which 
assembled  all  the  local  fleet  of  foot ;  the  only  stranger  being 
the  late  General  Fred.  Brine,  who  was  then  a  captain  in  the 
Royal  Engineers,  and  who  was  fond  of  sprinting.  In  the 
100  yards  race,  Quain,  a  Mallow  man  of  great  local  celebrity 
as  a  runner,  was  winning  easily ;  but  making  the  fatal  mis- 
take of  turning  round  to  laugh  at  Captain  Brine,  who  was 
close  behind  him,  he  slipped,  fell  close  to  the  winning-post, 
and  let  the  sapper  win.  All  the  County  of  Cork  looked  upon 
the  next  event,  the  150  yards  race  as  the  one  by  which  justice 
would  be  done  to  Ireland,  and  especially  to  Mallow.  As  I 
was  a  young  lad,  and  had  never  taken  part  before  in  such  an 
important  affair,  I  was  very  much  excited  when  I  toed  the 
scratch,  with  Quain  on  my  right  and  five  or  six  other  com- 
petitors on  my  left.  I  got  a  little  the  best  of  the  start  and 
won  by  several  yards,  with  Quain  second,  and  Brine,  who 
afterwards  warmly  congratulated  me  on  my  success,  third. 
So  Cork  was  avenged  ;  though  not  by  the  one  she  expected. 

The  young  men  of  the  class  from  which  officers  of  the 
army  and  members  of  the  various  professions  are  recruited, 
in  the  present  day,  owing  to  the  improved  sanitary  conditions 
under  which  they  exist,  are  undoubtedly  bigger  and  stronger 
than  those  of  thirty  years  ago;  but  I  cannot  help  thinking 


2O  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

they  are  'softer.'  They  appear  to  have  left  the  cultivation 
of  athletics  almost  entirely  to  the  class  below  them,  which 
is  chiefly  represented  by  shop  assistants  and  the  sons  of  small 
shopkeepers,  who  furnish  a  large  proportion  of  the  cycling, 
football,  running,  boxing,  and  swimming  champions.  I  grant 
that  these  amateurs  and  promateurs  (to  borrow  the  expres- 
sion of  poor  Sampson  of  the  Referee)  are  a  good  deal 
'  mixed ' ;  but  the  fact  remains  that  for  every  five  hundred 
lawn  tennis  players  who  get  their  commissions  in  the  Army, 
there  is  not  one  who  can  box,  or  ten  who  can  ride  across 
country.  My  old  friend  '  Young  Reid/  who  used  to  keep 
a  room  for  teaching  boxing  in  Lower  John  Street,  off  Golden 
Square,  and  who  died  not  long  ago,  often  bewailed  to  me  the 
decadence  of '  the  noble  art '  among  the  youth  of  the  wealthier 
classes.  He  had  been  one  of  the  cleverest  light-weights  who 
had  ever  fought  within  a  24-foot  ring,  and  by  his  civility, 
tact  and  honesty  had  had  a  very  large  connection,  as  a 
teacher,  among  the  nobility  and  gentry  of  England.  Though 
many  of  his  old  pupils  continued  their  practice  with  Reid, 
few  of  their  sons  cared  to  put  on  the  gloves.  As  the  old 
man  was  growing  feeble,  he  was  always  glad  to  see  me  at 
his  room,  so  that  I  might  spar  with  any  of  his  pupils  who 
wished  to  have  some  '  loose  play,'  which  in  this  case  was  gener- 
ally a  one-sided  affair  ;  for  Reid  made  me  promise  never  to  hit 
one  of  them,  except  on  the  shoulder  where  they  could  not  get 
hurt  '  If  you  hurt  them/  he  used  to  say  with  a  solemn  shake 
of  the  head,  '  they'll  go  away  and  I'll  never  see  them  again.' 
His  prophecy  was  proved  to  be  correct  on  two  occasions, 
when  irritated  by  chaff  from  a  pupil  with  whom  I  was  spar- 
ring, he  asked  me  to  hit  hard.  I  do  not  think  that  this 
objection  to  getting  knocked  about  with  the  gloves  arose  in 
the  slightest  from  fear  of '  punishment ' ;  but  from  disinclina- 
tion to  get  marked  about  the  face.  The  more  civilised  we 
become,  the  more  averse  are  we  from  incurring  risks  of 
personal  injury.  Take  for  instance  the  Irishmen  and  High- 
landers of  sixty  years  ago  and  compare  their  pugnacity  with 


Dr  Tanner.  21 

that  of  their  descendants  of  the  present  day.  Fighting  is  un- 
doubtedly one  of  the  greatest  pleasures  some  men  and  many 
animals  have.  Under  the  softening  influences  of  culture  the 
quarrelsome  instinct  will  in  time  be  lost,  and  the  *  rapture  of 
the  strife*  will  no  longer  stir  the  human  breast.  Although 
it  is  true  that  as  our  intellectual  faculties  become  stronger,  our 
instinctive  ones  diminish  in  power  ;  it  is  by  no  means  certain 
that  we  do  not  get  more  amusement  out  of  the  latter  than 
out  of  the  former.  Personally,  I  prefer  a  judicious  mixture  of 
the  two,  with  which  to  beguile  my  hours  of  relaxation. 

I  have  said  so  much  about  my  own  athletic  doings,  that 
I  must  explain  that  although  I  won  a  lot  of  events  in  that 
line,  my  success  was  due  not  to  my  being  particularly  good, 
but  to  the  fact  of  my  opponents  being  rather  moderate.  I 
was  about  equally  proficient  at  all  the  various  sports  I  took 
up ;  but  was  not  first-class  at  any  of  them. 

One  of  our  best  friends  in  Cork  was  Dr  Tanner,  father  of 
the  present  Member  of  Parliament.  He  was  a  fine,  generous- 
hearted  man  and  a  grand  operator,  whose  skill  with  the  knife 
earned  him  the  name,  among  his  admiring  medical  students, 
of  The  Butcher.  He  made  up  for  any  lack  in  knowledge 
of  minute  anatomy,  by  extraordinary  '  nerve '  and  ready 
resource.  He,  like  his  eldest  son,  Major  Kenny  Tanner, 
an  old  gQth  man,  was  a  staunch  Tory.  Politics,  I  may 
remark,  have  no  attraction  for  me.  If  I  turn  to  the  history 
of  sixty  years  ago,  I  find  that  the  views  of  the  then  Liberals, 
say,  on  the  Reform  Bill,  were  not  as  advanced  as  those  of 
the  Conservatives  of  the  present  day.  I  am  an  evolutionist. 
From  the  history  of  nations  I  see  the  working  of  evolution 
in  politics  and  religion,  as  clearly  as  I  can  trace  it  from  books 
of  stone,  in  the  descent  of  the  one-toed  horse  or  in  the  two- 
toed  chamois. 

Billiards  was  a  favourite  game  of  the  Cork  sportsmen. 
There  were  several  fine  players  among  the  markers,  notably, 
Tom  Chudleigh,  George  Dunovan,  and  Dan  Horgan.  The 
last  mentioned  was  a  bright  exception  to  his  predecessors  ;  for 


22  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

he  was  not  alone  the  best  player  we  have  had  in  Ireland,  but 
was  steady,  honourable,  gentlemanly  and  masterful.  He  soon 
abandoned  the  role  of  scoring  and  handing  the  rest,  for  that 
of  manager ;  and  when  his  old  employer,  Paddy  Farrel,  re- 
tired, he  took  over  the  billiard  rooms  and  wine  cellars.  The 
last  time,  not  long  ago,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him, 
he  had  been  twice  Mayor  of  Cork,  and  was  one  of  its  most 
respected  citizens.  He  is  unspoiled  by  prosperity,  and  is  the 
same  pleasant  good  fellow  whom  I  knew  twenty-five  years 
ago.  //  ira  loin,  if  he  choses  to  plunge  deeply  in  the  not  very 
reputable  game  of  politics  ;  for  he  is  capable  and  is  possessed 
of  infinite  tact  in  the  management  of  men.  I  may  mention 
that  Mr  '  Tay  Pay '  O'Connor's  father  was  also  a  famous 
billiard  professional  in  Athlone.  In  those  days,  an  immense 
amount  of  gambling  was  carried  on  at  billiards  ;  more  at  public 
rooms  probably  than  at  clubs.  The  Dawson  Lane  Billiard 
Rooms,  Dublin,  were  particularly  well  patronised.  Every 
afternoon,  the  chief  room,  which  was  reserved  for  good 
players,  was  crowded  by  spectators  who  backed  their  respec- 
tive fancies  in  silver,  gold  and  paper  money  as  freely  as  they 
would  have  done  on  a  racecourse.  The  best  local  gentlemen 
players  were  Mr  Gard  and  Mr  Paulett.  In  1866-7,  Captain 
(now  Colonel)  Fred.  Warburton  of  the  Royal  Engineers  was 
a  long  way  the  best  amateur  in  Ireland.  His  skill  brought 
him  bad  luck  ;  for  happening  to  win  about  ^"1500,  at  single 
pool  from  an  English  officer  in  the  club  to  which  I  belonged, 
he,  thinking  that  the  '  scrip '  which  he  had  received  was  as 
good  as  ready  money,  had  a  dash  at  sovereign  unlimited  loo, 
and  lost  ,£1200,  which  of  course  he  paid  up  out  of  his  own 
pocket,  as  his  opponent  of  the  previous  evening  did  not  *  part.' 
Captain  Warburton  had  imperturbable  nerves,  and  was  a 
remarkably  fine  hazard  player.  There  was  a  billiard  sharp, 
nicknamed  The  Dutchman,  who  used  to  pay  Ireland  peri- 
odical visits  with  much  profit  to  himself.  His  game  was 
pyramids,  at  which  I  have  never  seen  a  better  player,  not 
even  Jack  Roberts  or  Mr  Mayhew.  No  matter  what  odds 


Billiards.  23 

he  gave,  our  Irish  players  were  no  use  with  him  when  he 
had  backed  himself  heavily.  His  long  and  successful  career 
with  fifteen  red  balls  and  one  white  one,  was  summarily 
stopped  one  day  when  he  was  crossing  a  London  street  by 
a  careless  cab  driver  who  accidentally  destroyed  the  sight  of 
one  of  his  eyes  by  a  flick  of  his  whip. 

Five-and-twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  swindling  carried  on  at  public  rooms  by  billiard 
sharps,  whose  occupation  has  now  entirely  departed.  Few 
gentlemen  at  present  devote  their  talents  to  it.  Taken  all 
round,  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  amateur  play  is  much 
inferior  to  what  it  was  when  Roberts  had  rooms  in  Brighton  ; 
and  poor  Bill  Cook  had  rooms  on  both  sides  of  Regent 
Street.  The  best  gentleman  player  I  have  ever  seen  was 
Mr  Myers,  who  used  to  strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  the 
Brighton  pool  players.  He  handled  his  opponents  with  great 
tact,  and  seldom  ventured  to  take  a  whole  pool ;  but  when 
tempted  by  fair  odds,  he  would  lay  himself  down  to  work 
and  clear  the  table  in  a  manner  I  have  never  seen  equalled. 
Despite  his  forbearance,  which  was  mere  policy  without  a 
taint  of  deception,  his  skill  became  so  dreaded  that  Roberts 
had  at  last  to  choose  between  pool  or  Mr  Myers,  with  the 
result  that  he  asked  this  gentleman  to  retire  for  a  season. 
The  frequenters  of  the  rooms  did  not  mind  the  professionals, 
such  as  poor  Fred.  Shorter  or  Stanley  ;  but  they  felt  that 
they  had  no  chance  with  the  amateur.  Good  players  as 
Mr  Rogers,  Captain  Warburton,  Mr  Douglas  Lane,  and 
Dr  Galway  were,  they  were  a  long  way  inferior  to  the 
Brighton  gentlemen.  The  best  player  we  ever  had  in  the 
army  was  Captain  John  Bayly,  of  whom  my  friend  Captain 
Astley,  '  The  Mate's '  brother,  writes  to  me  as  follows : — 
'John  Bayly  was  a  left-handed  bowler  in  the  Eton  eleven. 
Shortly  after  joining  my  old  regiment,  the  I  ith  Foot,  he  used 
to  grumble  when  confined  to  barracks  on  duty  the  whole 
day.  He  took  my  advice  to  practise  billiards  on  these  days, 
and  he  soon  became  extraordinarily  good  at  the  game.  As 


24  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

he  then  adopted  my  further  suggestion  to  take  trips  to 
London  for  instruction  from  John  Roberts,  it  was  not  long 
before  he  became  the  best  billiard  player  in  the  army.  In 
Dublin  in  1883  we  backed  him  to  give  the  marker  of  the 
Army  Club  100  points  out  of  500,  and  then  we  'kidded  '  that 
we  had  played  the  fool,  and  appeared  downright  sorry  that  we 
had  made  the  match.  This  was  swallowed  by  the  *  clever 
division/  who  to  a  man  backed  Pat  the  marker.  This  astute 
lot,  among  whom  were  three  or  four  generals  (one  a  terrible 
Wolseyite),  was  told  by  Pat  that  he  could  not  lose,  as  he 
was  able  to  beat  John  Bayly  level.  The  match  came  off  and 
John  Bayly  won.  There  was  tremendous  consternation  in 
the  ranks  of  the  clever  division.  By  far  the  worst  loser  was 
the  Wolseyite,  who  is  still  alive,  I  much  regret  to  say.  One, 
and  only  one,  loser,  namely,  General  "  Begorra  "  Brown,  took 
his  licking  gracefully  and  paid  up  without  a  murmur.  "  Be- 
gorra "  has,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  left  this  planet — what  a  fine  man 
he  was !  Six  feet  two  inches  high  ;  grave  and  sedate  ;  only 
one  arm  ;  and  a  well-known  figure  in  Rotten  Row.  The  day 
after  the  match,  "Begorra"  came  up  to  me  and  said  :  "  If  it 
had  not  been  for  you,  sir,  John  Bayly  would  have  lost.  You 
know  what  I  mean,  sir  !  "  The  stately  figure  then  withdrew. 
I  am  fond  of  all  thoroughbreds.  "  Begorra  "  was  a  thorough- 
bred Irishman  from  Galway,  and  had  all  the  good  points, 
with  very  few  of  the  bad  ones  of  the  Hibernian.' 

The  people  in  Cork  were  so  devoted  to  amusement  that, 
as  a  boy,  I  made  little  progress  in  study.  My  mother  prayed 
that  I  would  be  famous  in  the  world  for  goodness,  wisdom  and 
learning ;  my  own  aspirations  were  for  billiards,  riding,  row- 
ing, boxing  and  running.  Her  gentle  admonitions  had  some 
small  effect  on  youth's  brutal  selfishness ;  for  after  spending 
a  year  on  the  Continent,  where  I  learned  gymnastics,  fencing, 
French  and  German,  I  worked  hard  and  passed  fairly  high  up 
on  the  list  for  the  Royal  Military  Academy,  which  was  then 
the  only  gate  of  entrance,  by  competition,  to  the  army.  As 
a  set-off  to  my  reluctantly  rendered  obedience,  I  devoted 


The  '  Gunners.'  25 

myself  from  that  out  entirely  to  sport.  Though  I  failed  to 
get  '  Sappers '  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  only  a  commission 
in  the  '  Gunners/  I  had  the  fleeting  glory  (remembered  now 
only  by  myself)  of  obtaining  the  winner's  prize  for  winning 
the  greatest  number  of  events  each  time  I  competed  at  the 
annual  foot  races  for  the  cadets. 


Phofo.  by  M.  H.  Hayes. 


CHAPTER    II. 

The  Royal  Military  Academy — School  Riding — Baucher — Pugilism — Bill 
Richardson — Joe  Nolan — Rowing — Joe  Sadler — Jim  Purlney — Fairplay 
in  England— Mitchell— Bat  Mullins. 

THE  Royal  Military  Academy  at  Woolwich  was  an 
admirable  school  for  '  knocking  the  nonsense '  out 
of  young  fellows  and  for  teaching  them  discipline.  It  was 
better  at  that  than  in  teaching  riding,  the  system  of  which  in 
the  arrny  was  the  same  then  as  it  is  now,  with  a  total  absence 
of '  why  ? '  in  it.  Certain  hard  and  fast  rules  were  and  are  laid 
down,  and  no  reasons  given.  It  is  easy  to  find  fault  with  this 
apparently  strange  omission  ;  but  we  must  remember  that  a 
reasoned-out  system  of  equitation  and  horsebreaking  is  a 
growth  of  modern  culture  which  germinated  in  the  minds  of 
men  long  after  that  part  of  the  Cavalry  Regulations  had  been 
stereotyped.  The  literature  of  the  subject  did  not,  practically, 
touch  on  it  until  Raabe,  Barroil,  Dr  Le  Bon,  mois  quivous  parle. 


Baucher.  27 

and  other  modern  writers  broke  through  the  conventional 
train  of  thought.  This  is  strange  as  regards  England,  con- 
sidering how  greatly  instruction  in  the  theory  of  musketry 
has  improved  the  shooting  of  our  army.  And  yet  some  of 
the  teachers  of  musketry  were  highly  finished  rule-of-thumb 
gentlemen,  if  we  may  judge  by  their  reported  questions  and 
answers ;  as,  for  instance,  '  What  should  always  be  kept  in 
the  butts  ? '  Answer  :  '  Silence.'  And  '  With  what  should 
you  clean  a  rifle  ? '  Answer  :  '  Care.'  From  my  very  short 
list  of  reasoners,  I  have  purposely  omitted  the  name  of 
Baucher  ;  not  because  I  am  in  any  way  unwilling  to  with- 
hold reverence  to  the  grand  franqazs  as  an  ecuyer  (a  riding- 
school  horseman; ;  but  because  his  attempted  reasoning  was 
hopelessly  obscure.  When  we  add  to  this,  change  of  front 
after  the  regrettable  accident  which  deprived  him  to  a  great 
extent  of  the  use  of  his  legs,  the  student  may  be  pardoned 
for  giving  him  up  in  despair.  Although  Baucher  was  unsur- 
passed in  the  practical  part  of  his  work ;  no  one  could  become 
a  Baucheriste  from  a  perusal  of  his  books.  Baron  de  Vaux  in 
his  charming  book,  Ecuyer s  et  Ecuyer vs,  gives  a  very  appre- 
ciative account  of  this  high  priest  of  fequitation  savante. 
'  Un  eleve  de  Baucher'  describes  his  system  in  detail,  with- 
out illustrations,  but  with  an  abuse  of  technical  phrases, 
which  would  have  charmed  his  master,  had  the  old  man 
been  alive  ;  but  which  do  little  to  enlighten  the  reader.  It  is 
possible  that  in  mentioning  M.  Barroil's  name,  I  may  do 
injustice  to  his  teacher,  Captain  Raabe :  but  from  reading 
that  admirable  work,  LArt  Equestre,  it  is  impossible  to  say 
how  much  there  is  of  le  mattre,  and  how  much  of  t  eleve.  I 
may  mention  that  when  I  was  in  F  Battery  iQth  Brigade 
Royal  Artillery  at  Kamptee,  our  riding-master  was  a  Mr 
Wilkinson,  who  was  an  enthusiastic  Baucheriste.  He  tried 
to  introduce  the  various  '  flexions '  of  the  French  reformer  ; 
but  because  those  exercises  were  not  in  the  drill-book,  the 
officers,  as  well  as  the  *  non-com.'s '  and  drivers  did  not  sup- 
port him  in  this  endeavour,  and  Baucher's  name  was  held  up 


28  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

to  derision  without  a  fair  trial  having  been  given  to  his 
methods.  The  fundamental  error — which  it  took  me  many 
years  to  find  out,  and  which  has  been  corrected  by  Fillis, 
Barroil,  and  Count  de  Montigny— in  the  lateral  flexions  of 
the  head  and  neck,  is  that  the  principal  of  these  '  suppling ' 
lessons  is  opposed  to  the  fact  that  a  horse,  on  receiving  an 
indication  of  the  reins  to  turn  to  one  side  or  the  other,  ought  to 
obey  it  with  his  hind  quarters,  as  well  as  with  his  head,  though 
in  an  opposite  direction.  I  may  well  ask,  what  good,  if  a 
horse  refuses  a  jump  or  bolts  off  to  one  side,  say,  to  the  left, 
is  it  for  him  to  bring  his  head  round  to  the  right,  on  that  rein 
being  pulled,  if  he  does  not  bring  his  hind  quarters,  at  the 
same  time,  round  to  the  left,  and  then  put  himself  straight 
in  the  desired  direction  ?  When  a  horse  understands  the  indi- 
cations of  the  hand  and  foot  properly,  he  will  turn  on  his 
centre  either  by  the  '  feel  '  of  the  rein,  or  by  the  pressure  of 
the  drawn  back  foot.  If  the  latter  be  strong  enough  to  check 
the  rotation  of  the  hind  quarters,  then,  and  then  only,  should 
it  be  possible,  by  the  former,  to  bring  the  head  round  without 
influencing  the  position  of  the  hind  limbs. 

As  soon  as  my  fellow  '  last  joined  '  cadets  and  myself  were 
sent  to  the  riding-school,  those  of  us  who  were  Irish,  had  the 
proud  satisfaction  of  seeing  that  a  far  larger  proportion  of  our 
number  could  ride  than  that  of  the  English.  Nationality, 
contrary  to  what  we  flattered  ourselves,  had  no  influence  in 
that  fact,  which  was  naturally  caused  by  the  greater  concen- 
tration of  the  well-to-do  classes  in  towns  in  England,  than  in 
Ireland.  Almost  all  of  us  Irish  lads  had  been  brought  up  in  the 
country  ;  and  had  had  far  more  facilities  for  learning  to  ride 
than  which  fell  to  the  lot  of  boys  brought  up  in  large  cities. 

During  the  three  years  I  spent  as  a  cadet  at  Woolwich,  I 
generally  got  leave  on  Saturdays,  and  spent  the  afternoons  on 
the  river,  or  at  some  running  grounds,  and  my  evenings  at 
some  boxing  saloon  such  as  that  of  Nat  Langham,  Ben 
Caunt,  Bill  Richardson,  Bob  Travers,  Jack  Hicks,  or  Jem 
Mace.  Fond  as  I  am  of  '  the  noble  art,'  I  am  glad  the  P.  R. 


Bill  Richardson.  2 9 

is  dead;  for  it  disgusted  its  supporters  and  destroyed  its 
finest  exponents.  'Ramps'  and  'crosses'  were  frequent  at 
actual  fights.  Visitors  to  the  sparring  rooms  were  constantly 
importuned  to  take  tickets  for  'benefits'  which  never  came 
off,  and  to  contribute  to  the  collections  at  the  end  of  each  set- 
to.  I  ought  not  to  grumble  much  at  the  last-mentioned 
custom  ;  for  after  having  had  a  spar  with  some  professional 
whom  I  had  intended  to  'tip,'  my  opponent,  on  different 
occasions,  offered  me  the  half  share  of  the  coppers,  and  few 
bits  of  silver  which  had  been  chucked  into  the  ring  after  the 
bout.  I  need  hardly  say  that  I  always  refused  the  kind  and 
flattering  offer,  and  that  I  invariably  contributed  half-a-crown 
or  so  to  the  amount.  Many  prize-fighters  when  they  were 
asked  to  give  lessons,  insisted  on  being  paid  in  advance  for  a 
dozen,  and  then  gave  their  pupil  such  a  'doing'  in  the  first 
one,  that  he  seldom  returned  for  a  repetition  of  ill  treatment. 
This  was  a  favourite  trick  of  the  once  peerless  Joe  Nolan. 
And  thus  the  goose  gradually  forsook  its  old  haunts  and  now 
deposits  its  golden  eggs  for  the  support  of  such  admirable 
institutions  as  the  German  Gymnastic  Club,  The  Orion,  West 
London,  etc.  The  cleverest  of  the  clever  and  bravest  of  the 
brave  were,  as  a  rule,  exploited  by  rascally  (ironically  called 
'  sporting  ')  publicans  who  used  them  as  mere  '  draws  '  to  the 
house,  for  '  the  good '  of  which  they  were  supposed  to  take 
all  the  drinks  offered  or  cadged  for.  A  short  course  of  this 
prostitution  of  manhood  soon  made  the  clear  eyes  blurred  ; 
the  dauntless  heart  'jumpy' ;  and  the  hard  athletic  frame,  a 
mass  of  diseased  fat.  Even  now,  the  whisky  bottle  is  the 
champion  knocker  -  out.  Among  the  unsavoury  crew  of 
gaffers,'  the  portly,  if  not  bloated  figure  of  Bill  Richardson, 
the  king  of  the  East,  stands  boldly  out.  His  place  at  the 
Blue  Anchor,  which  is  off  Church  Street,  Shoreditch,  is  now 
well  filled  by  my  good  friend  Tom  Symonds,  who  is  as  decent 
a  fellow  as  ever  knocked  a  man  down,  opened  a  bottle  of 
champagne,  or  layed  you  the  favourite.  The  stories  I  could 
tell  about  Bill  Richardson,  who  had  a  very  strongly  marked 


30  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

personality,  would  furnish  ample  material  for  a  novel ;  but 
unless  disguised  in  some  such  way,  would  be  too  plain  writ- 
ing for  print.  He  ruled  his  rough  pack  like  a  despot ;  though 
he  kept  faith  with  them  as  long  as  their  interests  were 
identical  with  his  own.  It  happened  that  the  police,  being 
in  search  of  the  hiding-place  of  the  proceeds  of  a  large 
jewelry  robbery  in  the  city,  knocked  at  the  door  of  the  Blue 
Anchor  at  two  o'clock  one  morning  and  demanded  instant 
admittance.  They  succeeded  in  getting  in,  but  were  stopped 
on  the  staircase  by  Richardson,  who,  revolver  in  hand,  threat- 
ened to  shoot  the  first  man  that  advanced,  until  he  had 
seen  the  authority  for  the  raid.  When  the  paper  had  been 
produced,  a  light  procured,  the  old  man's  spectacles  adjusted 
on  his  nose,  and  much  valuable  time  wasted,  Richard- 
son's indignation  at  the  invasion  of  his  hearth  and  home 
subsided,  and  he  gave  the  police  permission  to  search 
his  premises,  in  which,  of  course,  nothing  was  found.  His 
prey  sometimes  escaped  him.  For  instance,  the  incompar- 
able fighter  and  drunkard.  Joe  Nolan,  the  night  before 
his  great  match  with  that  stout-hearted  Welshman,  Dan 
Thomas,  got  leave  for  five  minutes  to  go  out  of  the  bed- 
room in  which  Richardson  had  locked  him  up  with  himself, 
and  did  not  return  until  he  was  brought  back,  about  midday, 
dead  drunk  after  having  been  run  over  by  a  cab.  Though 
the  fight  came  off,  Thomas  was  robbed  of  his  victory;  for  the 
Blue  Anchor  gang  would  tolerate  no  greater  disaster  than  a 
'  draw.'  This  murderous  following,  which  was  similar  to  the 
pack  of  scoundrels  that  was  imported  to  Bruges  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  cowardly  Smith  against  the  gallant  Slavin,  was 
well  utilised  by  Richardson.  Mine  host  of  the  Blue  Anchor 
was  the  early  patron  of  Jem  Mace,  who,  he  always  affirmed, 
was  a  better  man  than  Tom  Sayers,  which  is  a  statement 
contrary  to  the  weight  of  historical  evidence.  When  he  and 
Mace  fell  out,  he  produced  Tom  King  to  beat  him,  but  the 
honours  were  divided.  Mace,  in  those  days,  kept  a  public 
house  in  John  Street,  Shoreditch.  A  man  who  has  been 


Joe  Sadler.  3 1 

badly  treated  by  fame  is  Bob  Travers,  the  black,  who  had  the 
Twelve  Cantons  in  Castle  Street,  Leicester  Square.  As  his 
battles  with  Mace  proved,  there  was  little  to  choose  between 
the  two,  and  yet  his  name  is  in  no  one's  mouth.  I  believe  he 
is  still  alive  and  that  he  '  follows '  racing.  I  often  sparred 
with  Joe  Goss,  who  seemed  to  enjoy  so  much  the  pleasure  of 
knocking  me  about,  which  he  well  could  do,  that  I  readily 
forgave  him.  He  was  an  unlucky  man  to  keep  encountering 
Mace,  who  was  just  a  little  the  better  of  the  two.  The 
cleverest  light-weight  I  have  ever  seen  was  Jack  Lead,  who 
defeated  George  Holden.  Like  most  of  the  others,  he  died 
from  dissipation.  The  last  prize  fight  I  saw  was  between 
Woolf,  the  black,  and  Joe  Warmold.  Although  Woolf  was 
utterly  out  of  training,  he  managed  to  make  a  draw  after 
fighting  for  four  hours  and  a-half  in  the  Dartford  marshes. 
On  this  form  I  never  could  see  what  pretensions  Warmold 
had  to  be  considered  a  champion. 

My  chief  rowing  mentor  was  Tom  Pocock,  who,  as  well 
as  Tom  Grant,  young  Harry  Clasper  and  Jack  Mackinney, 
used  to  come  over  to  train  the  amateurs  at  Cork.  When 
I  was  at  '  The  Shop,'  I  often  met  the  Claspers,  Bob  Chambers, 
Harry  Kelly,  and  Joe  Sadler.  An  old  rowing  friend,  whom 
Sadler  used  to  train,  tells  me  that  Joe  was  wont  to  impress 
on  him  the  necessity,  when  he  felt  *  bad '  while  rowing  a 
match,  of  not  thinking  about  himself,  but  of  the  terrible 
'  gruelling '  the  other  fellow  must  be  having.  He  says  that 
was  the  only  good  wrinkle  Joe  ever  gave  him ;  but  that  it  was 
well  worth  all  the  money  he  paid  his  professional  coach. 
We  would  all  be  brave  in  every  contest  through  life,  if, 
instead  of  bewailing  our  own  knocked-about  condition,  we 
were  to  congratulate  ourselves  on  the  amount  of  punishment 
we  were  giving  that  '  other  fellow.'  Among  the  peds.,  I  liked 
Jim  Pudney,  the  old  four-mile  champion,  best.  He  was 
not  only  a  very  graceful  runner,  but  was  also  a  nice,  gentle- 
manly fellow.  His  most  pleasant  reminiscence  was  that  of 
his  first  big  ten-mile  race,  in  which  he  encountered  Jackson 


32  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

the  American  Deer,  Frost  the  Suffolk  Stag,  Jack  Levitt,  and 
others.  His  mother,  hearing  of  her  lad's  doings,  went  down 
to  the  running  grounds,  and  when  she  saw  her  boy  dash  off 
with  his  beautiful  lengthy  stride  to  the  front,  being  unable 
to  contain  her  feelings,  she  called  out,  to  the  astonishment 
of  the  motley  crowd  of  roughs,  '  Look  at  my  Jirn  !  They'll 
never  catch  him.'  Nor  did  they ;  for  he  won  from  start  to 
finish. 

The  popular  idea  among  people  who  have  not  had  much 
experience  of  '  taking  their  own  part '  in  a  row,  is  that  when 
two  Englishmen  come  to  blows  in  an  impromptu  manner, 
they  observe  as  nearly  as  possible  the  rules  of  the  London 
P.R.  My  experience,  which  can  be  amply  corroborated  by 
the  police  reports,  is  that  they  kick,  bite,  scratch,  stab,  strike 
with  lethal  weapons,  throw  any  missile  within  reach  at,  or 
otherwise  unfairly  assault  each  other  ;  but  that,  except  in 
very  rare  cases,  they  don't  '  put  up  their  hands '  and  fight  in 
the  supposed  orthodox  manner,  which  can  in  no  way  be 
regarded  as  a  national  method  for  settling  disputes.  In 
Lancashire,  for  instance,  kicking  is  the  recognised  style,  as 
we  may  see  if  we  observe  the  sharp-pointed,  and  steel- 
tipped  boots  of  the  young  sporting  men  of  Wigan,  Oldham, 
and  Manchester.  Irishmen  are  fairly  consistent  in  sticking 
to  the  shillalegh,  which  not  infrequently  takes  the  form  of 
spade,  or  is  supplemented  by  a  lump  of  lead,  or  heavy  iron 
ferule. 

When  that  soi-disant  Champion  of  England,  Mitchell, 
whose  last  victory  was  over  a  decrepid  old  man  in  the  Strand, 
had  an  impromptu  turn-up  with  Bill  Goode,  he  was  careful 
to  use  a  poker !  Could  anyone  who  knew  them  imagine 
Tom  Sayers  or  Nat  Langham  doing  such  things  ?  Most 
certainly  one  could  not.  We  have  no  *  line  '  by  which  we 
can  compare  the  best  prize-fighter  of  the  present  day, 
namely,  Jackson  the  black,  with  those  of  bygone  times ; 
but  we  have  one  by  which  we  may  guage  the  pretensions 
of  Mitchell.  When  he  was  first  launched  on  the  world  for 


Bat  Mullins.  33 

exhibition  purposes,  prior  to  his  going  to  America,  Bat 
Mullins,  who  was  then  close  upon  forty,  in  the  sere  and 
yellow  leaf  of  a  not  over  careful  life,  offered  to  fight  him  ; 
but  those  '  behind '  Mitchell  were  wise  enough  to  avoid  a 
match,  which,  if  it  had  come  off,  would  not  have  been  won  by 
their  man.  Bat,  in  his  best  days,  though  '  game '  and  very 
'  clever/  was  far  too  light  to  be  within  measurable  distance  of 
championship  form.  No  one  would  ridicule  the  idea  of  his 
having  been  the  equal  of  Sayers,  Heenan  or  King  more  than 
himself.  Bat  is,  I  think,  the  last  of  the  old-time  pugilists 
who  teaches  boxing.  Any  of  my  readers  who  wishes  to 
learn  the  noble  art  of  self-defence  could  not  do  better  than 
to  employ  him  ;  for  he  is  as  civil  and  decent  a  fellow  as  ever 
threw  his  cap  into  a  24-foot  ring.  I  first  knew  him  when  he 
was  a  lad  at  Nat  Langham's  place,  The  Mitre,  in  St  Martin's 
Lane.  Although  individual  Englishmen,  as  a  rule,  have 
very  vague  views  of  fair  play  during  the  heat  of  a  personal 
rough-and-tumble  fight,  they  are  collectively  sound  on  this 
subject,  especially  when  they  have  backed  the  right  horse  or 
man. 


Photo,  by  M.  H.  Hayes, 


CHAPTER     III. 


India — Sport  as  a  Training — Cultivation  of  Pluck — Conscience — Swadharm 
— My  First  Book — Literary  Style — Life  in  India — Riding  Buckjumpers 
— Steve  Margarett — Lord  Lansdowne — Buckjumping  defined — Buffalo 
Bill — Accidents — Fear  of  Death — Sir  Lyon  Playfair — Livingstone — 
Rustem  Pasha — Sir  Edward  Bradford — Sanson — Madame  Dubarry — 
De  Thou — Cartouche — Burman  Dakoits — Balthazar  Gerard — Effect  of 
Nervous  Shock  on  Animals  and  on  Prize  fighters. 

AFTER  I  got  my  commission  in  the  Royal  Artillery, 
I  stayed  six  months  at  the  depot  in  Sheerness,  then 
exchanged  into  a  field  battery  which  was  at  Kamptee,  and 
went  out  to  India  to  join  it  The  voyage  out  and  back  has 
been  so  frequently  described  that  I  need  not  allude  to  it 
further  than  to  say  that  I  have  been  three  times  round  the 
Cape  and  seven  times  overland. 

34 


India.  35 

The  monotony  of  the  long  homeward-bound  voyage 
from  India  by  a  sailing  ship  used  to  be  very  pleasantly 
broken  by  a  day  or  two's  stay  at  St  Helena,  at  which  there 
was  stationed  a  wing  of  an  infantry  regiment,  and  a  battery  of 
Garrison  Artillery.  Of  course,  the  officers  used  to  have 
races  on  this  rock,  as  the  French  are  pleased  to  call  it ;  in 
fact,  one  or  two  winners  were  pointed  out  to  me  among 
the  crowd  of  scarecrow  ponies  which  took  passengers  from 
the  port,  James  Town,  to  Le  Tombeau,  where  Napoleon's 
body  was  laid  for  some  time,  and  Longwood,  which  had  been 
his  residence.  The  native  grooms  always  accompanied  their 
fare  for  the  three  or  four-mile  journey,  and  kept  up,  no 
matter  how  fast  the  pace,  by  hanging  on  to  their  animal's 
tail,  the  hair  of  which  was  of  course  purposely  kept  long. 
The  only  travellers  who  now  go  to  St  Helena  are  passengers 
by  the  intermediate  steamers  of  the*  Castle  and  Union  lines. 
The  island  is  well  worth  a  visit. 

India  is  an  admirable  training  ground  for  youngsters, 
who  get,  there,  chances  of  learning  to  ride  and  shoot  which 
those  in  the  army  would  very  seldom  obtain  in  England. 
Besides,  the  fact  of,  practically,  everyone  in  India  owning  a 
horse  or  pony,  and  of  having,  to  a  great  extent,  to  superin- 
tend the  stable  management  of  one's  own  animals,  and  to 
conduct  one's  own  shooting  expeditions,  gives  one  every 
opportunity  of  acquiring  a  good  insight  into  the  nature  of 
horses  and  guns,  by  whose  aid  we  are  able  to  enjoy  the  best 
forms  of  sport  the  world  can  afford.  Without  India,  English 
officers  would  be  little  if  anything  better  than  those  of 
continental  armies.  Few  of  them,  except  in  the  mounted 
branches,  would  be  able  to  ride,  and  still  fewer  to  shoot, 
except  at  a  target.  Lawn  tennis  would  be  more  cultivated 
than  ever,  and  cycling  would  no  doubt  be  adopted  as  a 
substitute  for  horse  exercise.  The  difficulty  of  getting  into 
the  army,  and  the  hard  work  demanded  from  its  officers 
deter  the  sons  of  monied  men  from  entering  it — a  fact  which 
is  amply  proved  by  the  fewness  of  the  candidates  for  cavalry 


36  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

commissions,  which,  formerly,  were  the  coveted  prizes  for  the 
Sandhurst  cadets.  As  the  keeping  of  '  pleasure  horses ' 
means  the  possession  of  money  ;  knowledge  of  riding  and  of 
horses  is  becoming  rarer  and  rarer  among  the  last  joined 
officers,  who,  if  they  be  wise,  should  try  their  best  to  go  out 
to  India. 

Admirable  as  cricket,  lawn  tennis,  golf,  and  other  kindred 
games  may  be,  I  must  confess  that  I  am  rather  prejudiced 
in  favour  of  those  which  have  a  fair  share  of  danger  in  them, 
such  as  hunting,  pig-sticking,  chasing,  and  big  game  shooting, 
as  a  means  of  taking  the  softness  out  of  young  men.  Were 
pluck  a  common  human  attribute,  its  possession,  as  has  often 
been  said,  would  be  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  would 
not  be  held  up  for  universal  admiration.  Of  the  many  mean- 
ings embraced  in  the  term  *  sportsman,'  one  of  the  most 
essential,  to  my  thinking,  is  that  of  a  good  loser — of  a  man 
who  will  face  danger  and  will  bear  physical  or  mental  pain 
without  flinching ;  in  fact,  a  good  plucked  'un,  to  use  a 
colloquialism  which  is  more  expressive  than  elegant.  The 
strain  of  a  desperate  struggle  to  be  first  in  a  race,  whether 
on  foot,  boat  or  bicycle,  demands  quite  as  much  pluck  as  a 
a  prize  fight.  I  may  remark  that  courage,  like  other  mental 
qualities,  requires  practice  for  its  high  development,  and  is 
shared  by  beast  as  well  as  man  ;  by  black  as  well  as  white. 
My  experience  of  the  world,  of  which  I  have  seen  a  great 
deal,  has  made  me  regard  the  people  in  it  as  '  much  of  a 
muchness ' ;  one  nation  not  being  greatly  superior  to  the 
other,  except  by  reason  of  its  opportunities.  In  my  young 
days,  we  thought  Britons  and  Irishmen  could  box,  row,  and 
play  any  game  which  demanded  strength,  activity,  skill  and 
pluck,  better  than  anyone  else  ;  because  they  were  Britons 
and  Paddies.  Jack  Heenan,  J.  L.  Sullivan,  Murdoch  and  his 
fellow-cricketers,  Hanlon,  and  other  Colonials  and  Americans, 
to  say  nothing  of  Frenchmen  and  Dutchmen,  have  of  late 
knocked  a  good  deal  of  this  nonsense  out  of  our  heads.  We 
were  boastful  about  our  horses  until  Gladiateur,  Fille  de  1'Air, 


Heroism  and  Cowardice.  37 

Foxhall,  Iroquois,  and  a  host  of  others,  made  us  more  humble 
minded.  The  lesson  to  be  learned  from  this  not  altogether 
pleasing  experience,  is  that  men  excel  best  in  what  they 
practise  most.  If  we  have  at  present  no  pugilist  or  oarsman, 
like  Tom  Sayers  or  Jem  Mace,  like  Bob  Chambers  or  Harry 
Kelly,  worthy  of  upholding  the  honour  and  glory  of  England 
in  the  24-foot  ring,  or  on  the  river,  we  have  the  best  foot- 
ball players  in  the  world,  some  of  the  best  bicycle  riders, 
and  the  finest  jockeys.  Though  we  have  done  more  than  any 
other  nation  in  the  advancement  of  athletics,  and  of  a  love  for 
horses,  we  have  no  monopoly  either  of  the  vices  or  of  the 
virtues  of  the  human  race.  If  at  times  we  soar  to  extra- 
ordinary heights  of  heroism  ;  on  other  occasions  we  descend 
to  an  equal  distance  into  the  depths  of  baseness.  The  records 
of  our  naval,  military,  and  civilian  life  bristle  with  feats  to  be 
expected  more  from  gods  than  men  ;  and  yet  the  columns  of 
our  newspapers  publish  a  chronicle  of  cowardly  brutality  as 
dark  as  the  other  is  light.  As  I  turn  over  the  papers  of  this 
month,  I  read  that  '  an  inquiry  was  held  with  reference  to  the 
death  of  John  Thomas  Bonner,  aged  six  years,  the  son  of  a 
labourer.  The  deceased  began  playing  by  a  pond  in  the 
Potteries.  Shortly  afterwards  a  scream  was  heard,  and  when 
Mrs  Bonner  ran  out  she  found  her  boy  in  the  water.  The 
mother's  sister  followed  to  the  pond,  and  there  saw  the 
woman  tearing  her  hair  and  screaming  for  assistance.  Four 
men  were  also  at  the  spot,  but  none  of  them  made  any 
attempt  to  rescue  the  boy,  who  was  drowned  in  front  of  his 
mother's  eyes.  Witness  said  to  the  men,  "  Why  don't  you 
try  and  save  the  boy  ? "  and  one  of  them  replied,  "  It's  no 
good  trying ;  the  child  has  gone  down  for  the  last  time.  I 
am  not  going  to  drown  myself;  the  little  had  no  busi- 
ness there."  The  man  was  not  called,  and  the  jury  returned 
a  verdict  of  accidental  death.'  Within  a  fortnight  there  have 
been  two  diabolical  attempts,  by  bodies  of  miners  on  strike, 
to  upset  railway  trains  filled  with  men,  women  and  children. 
At  an  inquest  on  the  body  of  a  boy  who  was  drowned  in  the 


38  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

Grand  Surrey  Canal,  a  juryman  asks:  'Was  there  no  one 
near  when  deceased  first  sank  ? — Witness  :  Yes,  I  saw  at 
least  twenty  young  men  standing  on  the  towing-path. — A 
juryman:  What  were  they  doing  ?— Witness  :  Looking  on, 
like  a  lot  of  cowards.  Any  one  of  them  could  have  saved 
the  lad  had  they  tried.'  At  a  similar  inquest  held  on  the 
same  day,  we  learn  from  a  witness  that  *  When  he  got  there 
there  was  a  mob  of  people  looking  on,  but  "not  a  solitary 
soul "  tried  to  save  the  lad.'  On  reading  such  cases,  which 
are  no  isolated  ones,  we  might  be  justified  in  thinking  that 
these  people  were  devils,  not  men.  And  yet  the  fault  is  more 
from  lack  of  ability  to  take  the  initiative  and  from  want  of 
training,  than  from  badness  of  heart  ;  for  such  dastards  of 
circumstances  are  recruited  from  the  same  class  that  gave 
us  the  heroes  of  Balaclava,  of  the  Birkenhead,  and  of  the 
Victoria.  However  much  we  may  talk  of  free  will,  we  can- 
not get  over  the  fact  that  men  are  gregarious  animals,  and 
that  the  proportion,  among  them,  of  bell-wethers  is  extremely 
small.  Bravery  en  masse  comes  almost  as  easy  to  us  as  whole- 
sale cowardice.  Some  men  of  the  masterful  kind  are  not  gre- 
garious and  take  their  own  '  line '  without  effort.  Others,  by 
dint  of  strenuous  effort,  succeed  in  freeing  themselves  from 
the  trammels  imposed  upon  them  by  the  nature  of  their  being. 
I  once  knew  a  ship's  captain  who,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
vessel  of  which  he  was  in  command  being  wrecked,  behaved 
with  conspicuous  and  brutal  cowardice.  By  an  extraordinary 
piece  of  luck  he  got  another  ship,  which  also  was  wrecked  ; 
but  instead  of  repeating  his  former  conduct,  in  this  instance, 
he  was  the  means,  by  his  self-sacrificing  heroism,  of  saving 
many  lives.  The  owners  of  the  lost  craft,  to  mark  their  grati- 
tude, put  him  in  command  of  a  third  ship,  which,  in  course  of 
time,  followed  the  fate  of  its  predecessors.  Again  the  captain 
courted  death  in  heroic  efforts  to  save  others,  and  acted  so 
nobly  and  unselfishly  that  the  entire  English  press  rang  with 
the  praises  of  his  bravery. 

To  get  a  proper  estimate  of  people,  we  ought,  I  think,  to 


Conscience.  39 

judge  them  by  their  standards  and  not  by  our  own.  Take 
for  instance  the  wild  tribes  on  the  northern  frontier  of  India, 
who  believe  in  the  principle  of  a  tribal  vendetta,  and  who 
think  that  they  are  not  alone  justified,  but  are  fulfilling  a 
sacred  duty,  in  slaying  an  absolutely  innocent  man  who  has 
never  done  them  the  slightest  harm,  on  the  sole  plea  that  he 
happens  to  belong  to  a  tribe  of  which  some  other  member 
had  killed  one  of  their  clan.  We,  from  our  standpoint, 
sententiously  assert  that  conscience  is  an  infallible  guide; 
but  here  we  have  thousands  of  men  who  are  ready  at  any 
moment  to  conscientiously  commit  murder.  The  conscience 
of  the  Hindus  is  quite  as  susceptible  to  the  influence  of 
training  as  is  that  of  the  Kybarees.  They  are  governed  to  a 
great  extent  by  the  principle  of  swadharm,  which  signifies 
in  Sanskrit  that  each  one  has  his  own  particular  work  to  do, 
the  performance  of  which  is  a  virtue  in  him,  although  it 
might  be  a  vice  in  others.  Thus  the  man  who  replied,  '  I  am 
a  thief,'  to  the  rajah  who,  in  one  of  the  stories  of  the  Baital 
Pucheeseey  asked  him  who  he  was,  simply  stated,  without  either 
shame  or  bravado,  the  nature  of  his  vocation.  The  women 
of  certain  tribes  regard  the  exercise  of  professional  '  gaiety/ 
as  the  work  for  which  Providence  brought  them  into  being  ; 
in  the  same  manner  as  their  brothers  look  upon  themselves, 
with  a  clear  conscience,  as  robbers  and  poisoners.  This 
belief  in  swadharm  saves  Hindus,  and  all  who  acknowledge 
Hindu  authority,  from  the  snobbishness  of  wishing  to  pose 
as  belonging  to  a  caste  superior  to  their  own.  The  Dom, 
Dhobi,  or  Mehter,  the  mere  touch  of  whom  would  be  pollu- 
tion to  a  Brahmin,  is  as  contented  in  his  sphere  of  life  as  a 
( twice  born.'  Hence,  among  Hindus  we  find  castes,  to  the 
men  of  whom  death  has  no  terror ;  and  others,  like  the 
Bengalees,  who  are  not  ashamed  to  admit  that  they  belong 
to  a  nation  of  cowards.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  chief 
leaders  of  native  thought  in  India,  should  be  recruited  from 
this  pusillanimous  race.  The  Parsees,  also,  know  all  about 
trade ;  but  nothing  about  fighting.  Our  system  of  selection, 


40  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

by  competitive  examination,   for   official   posts,   is    not   well 
suited  to  India. 

At  Kamptee,  which  was  my  first  station  in  India,  I  was  well 
*  entered  '  to  Eastern  sport ;  as  there  was  capital  pig-sticking 
and  shooting  within  easy  reach,  with  occasional  racing. 
After  two  years  of  the  Madras  side,  I  got  transferred  to  the 
livelier  one  of  Bengal,  and  gradually  took  up  the  training 
of  race-horses  and  chasers,  for  which,  my  previous  intimate 
acquaintance  with  the  training  of  men,  was  an  admirable  in- 
troduction. With  experience  to  test  and  modify  my  theories, 
I  acquired  in  time  a  good  deal  of  skill  in  the  art  of  bringing 
a  horse  fit  to  the  post,  and  introduced  many  improvements 
and  innovations  which  have  since  been  accepted  by  Indian 
racing  men.  My  first  contributions  to  the  local  press  in 
about  the  year  1869,  were  reports  of  race  meetings  which 
I  attended.  This  practice  with  the  pen  appears  to  have 
given  me  confidence ;  for  five  years  afterwards  I  brought 
out  a  book  on  Training  and  Horse  Management  in  India, 
which  has  run  into  five  large  editions,  and  which  is  accepted 
as  the  standard  authority  on  the  subject.  Although  I  was 
well  educated,  according  to  the  usual  acceptation  of  the  term, 
and  had  '  passed  '  creditably  in  French,  German,  Latin,  Greek, 
Hindi  and  Urdu,  I  found  extreme  difficulty  in  expressing  my 
ideas  in  fairly  presentable  English.  Even  after  twenty  years' 
work,  I  am  well  aware  that  I  have  attained  comparatively 
little  skill  in  this  literary  art,  to  which  I  have  found  no  royal 
road.  The  branch  of  literature  to  which  I  have  chiefly 
devoted  myself  is  that  of  teaching,  in  which  I  candidly 
think  that  my  success  has  been  owing  more  to  my  method 
of  explanation  than  to  my  knowledge  of  the  respective  sub- 
jects. It  would  be  mere  affectation  in  me  to  deny  that  I 
have  a  fair  measure  of  the  gift  of  explaining  to  others  things 
which  I  know.  On  the  other  hand,  I  can  frankly  disclaim 
the  possession  of  vast  stores  of  knowledge  which  I  have 
been  unable  to  transfer  to  paper.  In  my  '  line,'  namely, 
that  of  teaching,  the  great  essential  to  success  is,  I  think. 


Racing  in  India.  41 

the  ability  to  keep  the  reader's  attention  fixed  as  much  as 
possible  on  the  subject  matter,  without  allowing  it  to  wander 
to  the  consideration  of  the  words  used.  Hence,  I  try,  as 
far  as  I  am  able,  to  write  plain  and  correct  English ;  and 
to  avoid  any  words,  phrases,  ambiguities  or  tricks  of  style 
which  might  arrest  the  attention  of  the  reader,  whose  train 
of  thought  might  thus  be  broken  by  my  meddlesome  inter- 
ference. Writers  of  'pure  literature'  are,  of  course,  free  to 
pay  more  attention  to  words  than  to  facts  or  ideas.  In  many 
Persian  and  Urdu  books  (take  the  Fasan-i-Ajaib  for  instance) 
the  authors  display  their  literary  skill  solely  by  the  manner 
in  which  they  manipulate  the  actual  words. 

I  liked  the  life  in  India  and  the  facilities  for  sport  to  be 
found  there,  so  much,  that  I  got  transferred,  after  passing 
the  requisite  language  examination,  from  the  Royal  Artillery 
into  the  Bengal  Staff  Corps,  in  which  I  had  more  pay  and 
far  less  work  to  do.  During  the  nine  years  I  remained  in 
the  Staff  Corps  and  the  one  in  '  The  Buffs,'  I  devoted  myself 
almost  entirely  to  the  training  of  horses  for  racing  and  chas- 
ing, and  had  a  remarkably  *  good  time,'  which  was  but  little 
broken  in  upon  by  military  duty ;  for  my  different  com- 
manding officers  liked  my  sporting  ways,  and  gave  me  as 
much  leave  to  go  racing  as  they  possibly  could.  I  must 
not  inflict  an  account  of  these  ten  years  on  my  readers  ; 
for  its  interest  would  principally  be  local.  Besides,  I  have 
already  committed  it  to  paper  in  Indian  Racing  Reminiscences. 

With  usually  ten  or  twelve  horses  in  my  stable,  I  had 
always  something  to  ride,  and  I  profited  greatly  by  the  able 
teaching  of  poor  Jack  Irving,  the  jockey,  who  often  came 
and  stayed  with  me.  Jack,  who  was  the  finest  jockey  we 
have  ever  had  in  India,  had  graduated  in  John  Scott's  stable, 
and  was  a  thorough  workman.  I  won  some  steeplechases, 
and  a  few  welter  flat  races;  but  had,  later  on,  to  give  up 
the  game  I  dearly  loved,  as  my  health  would  not  stand  the 
strain  of  wasting.  I  had,  however,  quite  enough  to  do,  train- 
ing, schooling  and  teaching  my  stable  boys  to  ride. 


42  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

I  have  been  lucky  in  escaping  from  accidents  with  horses. 
Of  course  I  have  often  got  hurt  when  there  has  been  a  good 
deal  of  *  bone '  in  the  ground,  as  there  usually  is  in  India ; 
'but  I  have  never  been  more  seriously  injured  than  getting  my 
elbow  dislocated  from  a  fall  off  a  buckjumping  Australian. 
The  theory  that  a  good  horseman  should  never  get  a  fall 
except  with  a  horse,  does  not  stand  the  test  of  practice. 
There  are  many  different  kinds  of  fine  horsemanship.  In 
racing,  chasing  and  hunting,  the  capable  rider  adopts  the  seat 
which,  while  having  a  sufficiency  of  adhesiveness  for  the 
object  in  view,  is  the  best  possible  one  for  enabling  the  horse 
to  exert  his  powers  to  the  greatest  advantage.  In  rough- 
riding,  on  the  contrary,  the  main  consideration  is  ability  to 
stick  on.  I  have  seen  some  of  the  finest  riders  in  England 
shot  off  a  horse's  back  from  the  slight  provocation  of  a  mere 
'  pig's  jump/  which  is  a  mishap  that  should  cause  no  adverse 
reflection  to  be  cast  on  the  deposed  one's  capacity  to  ride 
brilliantly  on  the  flat  or  over  a  country.  As  Colonial  horses 
for  ordinary  riding  work  are,  as  a  rule,  allowed  to  run  wild 
until  they  are  about  four  years  old,  they  are  at  first  very 
difficult  to  ride,  and  often  retain  during  the  remainder  of  their 
lives,  a  tendency  to  '  put  their  backs  up '  and  buck,  especially 
after  having  had  a  few  days'  rest.  Although  horses  in  the 
Antipodes,  year  by  year,  receive  greater  attention  and  earlier 
handling;  still  the  proportion  of  'difficult'  ones  remains  so 
large,  that  young  Colonials,  almost  all  of  whom  ride,  dili- 
gently cultivate  the  art  of  sticking  on,  and  are  inclined  to 
ridicule  the  pretensions  to  horsemanship  of  any  '  new  chum ' 
who  may  have  less  '  gum '  in  the  saddle  than  they.  Such  a 
claim  to  superiority  is  not  altogether  valid ;  for  Australian 
jockeys  are  quite  as  indifferent  rough-riders  as  are  English 
ones.  In  fact,  the  former  would  be  as  little  inclined  as  the 
latter  to,  knowingly,  get  on  the  back  of  a  buckjumper.  I  may 
here  explain  that  although  I  have  never  been  in  Australia,  I 
have  met  and  intimately  known  for  years  so  many  scores  of 
Colonial  jockeys,  rough-riders  and  dealers,  and  have  owned, 


Buckjumper $.  43 

ridden  and  broken  so  many  hundreds  of  Australian  and  New 
Zealand  animals,  that  I  venture  to  speak  of  the  horses  and 
riders  in  those  countries  as  if  I  had  lived  my  life  there.  I 
fail  to  see  much  merit  in  the  mere  sticking  on  to  a  buck- 
jumper  in  the  Colonial  style  ;  for  the  success  of  such  a  feat 
depends  more  on  the  saddle  than  on  the  rider.  Although 
any  ordinary  lad  could  learn,  in  a  month,  to  sit  a  buckjumper 
by  the  aid  of  a  Colonial  saddle ;  there  are  very  few  of  the 
best  professional  buckjumping  riders  who  would  even  attempt 
to  do  so,  in  an  ordinary  English  hunting  saddle.  Steve 
Margarett  is  the  only  one  I  have  ever  seen  able  to  do  this. 
Although  he  has  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Australia,  with 
frequent  visits  to  India,  where  I  knew  him  ;  he  was  born  and 
bred  in  Gloucestershire.  I  may  remark  that  he  is  as  good 
over  a  country  as  on  the  back  of  a  buckjumper.  In  Australia 
he  has  frequently  defeated  all  comers  in  buckjumping  com- 
petitions, in  which  the  aspirants  to  fame  have  to  ride  each 
other's  horses,  and  consequently  bring  the  worst  they  can 
find.  In  one  of  these  contests,  when  Steve  was  mounting  a 
terribly  vicious  brute,  he  pulled  off  the  bridle,  the  throatlash 
of  which  he  had  purposely  left  unbuckled ;  so  that  the  animal, 
while  he  was  on  its  back,  was  free  to  do  everything  it  possibly 
could  to  unseat  him.  As  Steve  stuck  on  to  the  horse,  without 
having  any  reins  to  steady  himself  during  the  desperate  plunges 
made  by  his  mount,  he  won  the  prize  amid  the  frenzied  plaudits 
of  the  delighted  spectators.  Steve  won  the  buckjumping  prize 
at  a  horsebreaking  performance  I  gave  in  aid  of  the  Jockeys' 
Benevolent  Fund,  a  few  years  ago  at  the  Calcutta  Grand 
Stand  before  the  Viceroy,  Lord  Lansdowne,  and  an  immense 
audience.  The  illustration  on  page  34  is  a  photograph  of 
an  Australian  rough-rider  in  a  regular  buckjumping  saddle, 
and  mounted  on  a  half-broken,  underbred  Colonial  horse. 
My  readers  will  observe  that  the  '  rolls '  on  the  saddle  flaps 
are  made  to  afford  a  bearing  to  the  lower  part  of  the  thighs, 
and  not  to  the  knees. 

I  may  mention  that  if  the  rider  of  a  buckjumper  holds  on 


44  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

tightly  to  the  reins,  he  will,  almost  to  a  certainty,  become 
displaced  in  his  seat  by  being  pulled  forward,  the  moment 
the  horse  throws  his  head  down.  A  well-timed  buck  will 
then  scarcely  fail  to  catapult  the  rider  into  space.  To  ride  a 
buckjumper  properly,  one  ought  to  try  as  far  as  practicable 
to  prevent  him  getting  his  head  down  ;  but  at  the  same  time 
one  ought  to  be  ready  to  let  the  reins  slip  through  the  fingers, 
the  moment  one  feels  that  one  cannot  resist  the  downward 
pull  of  the  animal's  head. 

I  think  I  may  best  define  buckjumping  as  one  or  more 
consecutive  standing  leaps  by  the  more  or  less  simultaneous 
action  of  both  fore  and  hind  legs,  executed  by  the  horse  in 
the  same  direction  or  to  either  side,  with  a  minimum  amount 
of  forward  progression,  and  with  the  greatest  possible  eleva- 
tion of  the  hindquarters  and  depression  of  the  head  and 
neck.  The  check  given  to  forward  movement  may  be  so  well 
marked,  that  the  leap,  more  or  less  sur  place,  may  be  con- 
verted into  a  backward  spring.  The  more  forward  movement 
is  given  to  the  jumps,  the  more  has  the  forehand  to  be  raised, 
and  the  easier  will  they  be  to  sit.  When  the  action  has  a 
good  deal  of  forward  movement  in  it,  it  is  usually  called  in 
the  Colonies  pigjumping.  If  the  horse,  instead  of  landing  on 
both  fore  legs  at  the  same  time,  alights  on  one  and  then  on 
the  other,  as  in  the  ordinary  leap,  the  pigjumping  is  con- 
verted into  the  more  familiar  and  still  less  discomposing  act 
of  plunging.  I  may  remark  that  the  higher  a  horse  bucks, 
the  less  he  goes  forward  ;  and  that  the  more  he  twists 
himself  round,  the  higher  he  cants  up  his  quarters,  the  more 
he  depresses  his  head,  and  the  more  uniform  is  the  respective 
action  of  the  fore  and  hind  legs  ;  the  more  difficult  will  he  be 
to  sit.  It  sometimes  happens  that  a  horse  throws  his  hind- 
quarters so  high  and  puts  his  head  so  low  down,  that  he  *  comes 
right  over/  with  serious  if  not  fatal  effect  to  his  helpless  rider. 
It  is  much  easier  to  ride  a  buckjumper  in  a  small  enclosed 
space,  than  in  the  open,  where  he  would  be  able  to  get  up  a 
great  deal  of  forward  impetus,  which,  on  being  suddenly 


Buffalo  Bill's  Cowboys.  45 

checked,  would   materially  assist  in  throwing  the  rider  for- 
ward.     As    it    is    impossible    to    practically    make    a    rigid 
distinction    between    buckjumping    and    what  I  have    called 
pigjumping  for  want  of  a  more  elegant  expression  ;  I  do  not 
like  to  speak  authoritatively  about  the  occurrence  or  absence 
of  buckjumping  among  certain  breeds  of  horses.     I  have  seen 
many  undoubted    instances   of  it   among   Australians,  New 
Zealanders,  South  Americans,  Cape  horses  and  Basuto  ponies  ; 
but  have  never  seen  any  attempt  at  buckjumping  by  East 
Indian  horses,  Arabs,  Barbs  or  Persians.     I  cannot  recall  any 
case,  within  my  own  knowledge,  of  English  or  Irish  horses 
bucking;    although   I   do   not   see  any  reason   against  their 
being  possessed  of  that  vice,  which  is  generally  confined  to 
animals  that   are  '  taken    up '   at  a  comparatively  late   age. 
My  readers  may  wish  to  know  my  opinion  of  Buffalo  Bill's 
so-called    buckjumpers   and    of  the   riding   of  his   cowboys. 
Although  I  have  frequently  witnessed,  their  performances  at 
Earl's  Court,  I  must  say  that  if  any  of  these  animals  really  did 
buck,  which  I  rather  doubt,  it  was  in  the  feeble  manner  which 
might  have  been  expected  from  *  trick '  horses  which  had  to 
do  their  '  turn  '  twice  a  day  for  months,  if  not  for  years.     Be- 
sides, buckjumping  is  a  vice  which  no  horse  will  continually 
practise,  unless   he  receives  the  frequent  encouragement   of 
throwing  his  man  off.     The  cowboys  seem  hard,  active,  fear- 
less fellows,  with  whom  it  would  be  more  pleasant  to  drink 
than  to  fight     No  comparison  can  be  drawn  between  their 
riding   and    ours,   as   the   two   styles   are   entirely   different. 
Whether  their   bronchos   buck  or  only  pigjump,  the  feat  of 
sticking  on  them  is  not  very  difficult  when  it  is  allowable  to 
use  a  saddle  of  about  50  Ibs.  in  weight  and  to  hold  on  to  it 
with  one  or  both  hands.     The  size  and  shape  of  their  saddle 
are  no  doubt  regulated  to  attain  comfort  in  their  hard  work, 
and   not   merely  to   enable   them    to   stick  on.      Had   they 
practice  in  our  saddles  and  in  our  methods,  they  would  no 
doubt    acquit    themselves    creditably,   like   the   fine   fellows 
they  are. 


46  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

As  far  as  I  can  remember,  I  have  been  only  twice  nearly 
being  killed  by  accident.  On  one  occasion,  I  was  carelessly 
sitting  on  the  bulwarks  of  a  sailing  ship  in  which  I  was  bound 
for  India,  one  dark  night,  when  the  ship  gave  a  sudden  lurch 
and  I  fell  backwards.  As  I  turned  over,  I  caught  a  projecting 
piece  of  wood,  and  being  a  good  gymnast,  I  swung  myself 
up  and  was  on  board  in  a  second  or  two.  As  the  ship  was 
running  free  before  a  fresh  breeze  with  all  sails  set,  I  would 
not  have  had  a  million  to  one  chance  of  being  picked  up  in 
the  pitch  darkness,  had  I  fallen  overboard.  Another  time  I 
got  a  still  worse  jar  to  my  feelings  when  riding  in  a  five- 
furlong  race,  a  very  impetuous  horse,  who  always  buckjumped 
when  much  excited.  A  few  false  starts,  as  we  were  all 
anxious  to  be  off,  set  him  mad.  On  turning  him  round  to 
get  him  to  join  his  horses,  he  gave  three  or  four  desperate 
plunges,  if  not  actual  buckjumps,  with  such  a  jerk  at  the  end 
of  each  one,  that  my  racing  stirrup-irons  gave  to  the  pressure, 
and  caught  my  feet  as  tightly  as  if  they  were  in  a  vice. 
Luckily  the  starter's  flag  fell  and  the  pace  was  good  enough 
to  steady  him.  Had  we  been  kept  longer  at  the  post,  I 
should  have  had  a  trial  of  my  ability  to  ride  a  buckjumper 
in  a  two-pound  saddle,  with  the  penalty  of  a  horrible  death 
in  the  event  of  my  losing. 

Although  I  was  in  a  dreadful  fright  when  I  felt  my  feet 
caught  in  the  stirrups  when  on  the  buckjumper,  I  believe  if  I 
had  fallen  off  and  got  dragged,  my  senses,  as  long  as  I  kept 
alive,  would  have  been  too  numbed  for  me  to  have  felt  either 
pain  or  fear.  I  remember  once  walking  unarmed  through  a 
part  of  the  great  Nirmul  jungle  in  India,  when  suddenly  a 
tiger  sprung  up  almost  at  my  feet.  For  probably  ten  seconds, 
which  seemed  as  many  years,  he  raced  round  me  while  I 
stood  stock  still,  wondering  why  I  could  not  put  out  my 
hand  and  catch  him  by  the  tail,  which  was  the  only  thought 
that  occupied  my  mind  during  these  eventful  moments,  until 
with  a  bound  and  growl  the  tiger  disappeared  into  the  thick 
underwood.  Sir  Lyon  Play  fair  says  :  — 


Fear  of  Death.  47 

k  Having  represented  a  large  medical  constituency  (the 
University  of  Edinburgh)  for  seventeen  years  as  a  member  of 
Parliament,  I  naturally  came  in  contact  with  the  most  eminent 
medical  men  in  England.  I  have  put  the  question  to  most 
of  them,  "  Did  you  in  your  extensive  practice  ever  know  a 
patient  who  was  afraid  to  die  ?  "  With  two  exceptions  they 
answered  "  No."  One  of  these  exceptions  was  Sir  Benjamin 
Brodie,  who  said  he  had  seen  one  case.  The  other  was  Sir 
Robert  Christison  who  had  also  seen  one  case — that  of  a 
young  girl  of  bad  character  who  had  had  a  sudden  accident. 
I  have  known  three  friends  who  were  partially  devoured  by 
wild  beasts  under  apparently  hopeless  circumstances  of 
escape.  The  first  was  Livingstone,  the  great  African  travel- 
ler, who  was  knocked  on  his  back  by  a  lion,  which  began  to 
munch  his  arm.  He  assured  me  that  he  felt  no  fear  or  pain, 
and  that  his  only  feeling  was  one  of  intense  curiosity  as  to 
which  part  of  his  body  the  lion  would  take  next.  The  next 
was  Rustem  Pasha,  now  Turkish  Ambassador  in  London.  A 
bear  attacked  him  and  tore  off  part  of  his  hand  and  part  of 
his  arm  and  shoulder.  He  also  assured  me  that  he  had 
neither  a  sense  of  pain  nor  fear,  but  that  he  felt  excessively 
angry  because  the  bear  grunted  with  so  much  satisfaction  in 
munching  him.  The  third  case  is  that  of  Sir  Edward  Brad- 
ford, an  Indian  officer  now  occupying  a  high  position  in  the 
India  Office.  He  was  seized  in  a  solitary  place  by  a  tiger 
which  held  him  firmly  behind  his  shoulders  with  one  paw  and 
then  deliberately  devoured  the  whole  of  his  arm,  beginning  at 
the  end  and  ending  at  the  shoulder.  He  was  positive  that  he 
had  no  sensation  of  fear,  and  thinks  that  he  felt  a  little  pain 
when  the  fangs  went  through  his  hand,  but  he  is  certain  that 
he  felt  none  during  the  munching  of  his  arm.  Christians, 
however  good  they  may  be,  seem  more  afraid  of  death  than 
Mahamadans,  Hindus,  and  other  so  -  called  heathen.  Dr 
Johnson,  who  had  much  less  reason  than  most  of  us  to  dread 
a  future  life,  was  constantly  haunted  by  such  fears  ;  but 
Vespasian  died  with  a  coarse  jest  on  his  lips.  Even  on  the 


48  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

scaffold  men  face  death  boldly.  Nothing  astonished  Sanson, 
the  hereditary  headsman  of  France,  who  plied  his  ghastly 
trade  throughout  the  Reign  of  Terror,  than  the  patience  with 
which  his  thousands  of  victims  met  their  doom.  Madame 
Dubarry,  the  pampered  mistress  of  Louis  XV.,  was  almost 
the  only  exception.  She  struggled  desperately  with  the 
executioner  and  his  assistants,  and  her  frantic  entreaties  for 
"  one  little  minute  more  "  rang  in  the  ears  of  the  spectators 
for  months.  The  learned  and  virtuous  De  Thou,  the  innocent 
victim  of  the  malice  of  the  dying  Cardinal  Richelieu,  insisted 
on  having  his  eyes  bandaged  when  he  mounted  the  scaffold  at 
Lyons.  "  Yes,  gentlemen/'  he  said,  "  I  own  I  am  a  coward. 
When  I  think  of  death  I  shudder  ;  my  hair  stands  on  end  ! 
The  unhappy  man  had  better  reason  than  he  wot  of  to  dread 
the  divorce  of  soul  and  body  ;  for  he  was  terribly  mangled  by 
the  bungling  mechanic  who  had  replaced  the  regular  heads- 
man. A  violent  shock,  as  well  as  nervous  tension,  deadens 
the  sense  of  pain.  When  the  highwayman  Cartouche  was 
brought  to  the  Place  de  Greve  to  expiate  his  countless  crimes 
on  the  terrible  wheel,  he  greeted  the  first  blow  of  the  exe- 
cutioner's crowbar  which  smashed  his  leg,  with  a  howl  of 
anguish.  But  the  second  stroke  on  the  other  leg  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  loud  laugh.  In  reply  to  the  confessor's  surprised 
query,  Cartouche  said,  "  I  was  laughing,  my  father,  at  the 
folly  and  cruelty  of  men.  They  suppose  they  are  giving  me 
prolonged  torture  ;  but  after  the  first  blow  I  can  feel  nothing." ' 
Motley  tells  us,  in  the  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,  about  the 
marvellous  fortitude  with  which  Balthazar  Gerard,  who  assas- 
sinated the  Prince  of  Orange,  sustained  the  most  horrible 
tortures.  '  During  the  intervals  of  repose  from  the  rack,  he 
conversed  with  ease  and  even  eloquence.  The  constancy  in 
suffering  so  astonished  his  judges  that  they  believed  him 
supported  by  witchcraft.  ...  It  was  decreed  that  the 
right  hand  of  Gerard  should  be  burned  off  with  a  hot  iron, 
that  his  flesh  should  be  torn  from  his  bones  with  pincers  in 
six  different  places,  and  that  he  should  be  quartered  and  dis- 


Fear  of  Death.  49 

embowelled  alive,  that  his  heart  should  be  torn  from  his 
bosom  and  flung  in  his  face  and  that,  finally,  his  head  should 
be  taken  off.  The  sentence  was  literally  executed  on  the 
1 4th  July,  the  criminal  supporting  its  horrors  with  the  same 
astonishing  fortitude.  So  calm  were  his  nerves,  crippled  and 
half  roasted  as  he  was  ere  he  mounted  the  scaffold,  that  when 
one  of  the  executioners  was  slightly  injured  in  the  ear  by  the 
flying  from  the  handle  of  the  hammer  with  which  he  was 
breaking  the  fatal  pistol  in  pieces,  as  the  first  step  in  the 
execution — a  circumstance  which  produced  a  general  laugh 
in  the  crowd — a  smile  was  observed  upon  Balthazar's  face  in 
sympathy  with  the  general  hilarity.' 

A  friend  of  mine  who  was  a  police  officer  in  Burma, 
shortly  after  the  occupation  of  that  country,  tells  me  that  he 
was  present  at  the  execution  of  four  dakoits  who  had  been 
sentenced  to  be  shot.  All  were  tied  up  ready  for  their  turn. 
One  of  the  bullets  of  the  volley  that  was  directed  on  the  first 
man,  struck  him  on  the  forehead,  at  the  junction  of  hair  and 
skin,  and  lifted  the  top  of  his  head  off  as  clean  as  one  would 
slice  off  the  top  of  a  turnip  with  a  knife.  Seeing  this 
unexpected  effect,  the  remaining  three  burst  into  shrieks  of 
laughter ;  in  fact,  the  occurrence  amused  the  second  man  so 
much,  that  death  alone  restrained  his  merriment.  His  last 
words  were :  *  I  wonder,  will  the  top  of  my  head  be  blown 
off?'  The  same  gentleman  tells  me  of  another  Burman  who 
was  on  the  scaffold  waiting  to  be  hanged.  He  first  of  all 
held  up  his  hands  and  swore  an  oath  a  Burman  is  supposed 
never  to  break,  that  he  was  innocent.  Then  he  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  make  one  last  request.  In  reply,  he  was  told  that 
it  would  be  granted,  if  at  all  reasonable.  '  Then,'  said  he, 
'  hang  my  brother,  who  is  in  jail  under  sentence  ;  for  I  would 
like  someone  to  keep  me  company  when  I  am  dead.'  This 
was  promised.  '  But,'  he  continued,  with  a  humorous  twinkle 
in  his  eye,  '  don't  hang  him  immediately  after  me,  if  he  wants 
to  live  a  little  longer.'  And  with  a  smile  he  passed  into 
eternity. 

D 


50  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

I  am  afraid  it  will  be  seen  from  a  perusal  of  the  foregoing 
incidents,  that  the  claim  often  made  on  behalf  of  Christian 
martyrs  for  a  monopoly  of  indifference  to  torture  and  of 
fearlessness  of  death,  is  not  altogether  valid. 

The  fact  that  a  violent,  nervous  shock  deadens  the  sense 
of  pain  seems  to  hold  good  with  the  lower  animals  as  it  does 
with  men,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  behaviour  of  big  game 
which  die  fighting  after  having  received  several  serious 
wounds.  In  such  cases,  as  those  of  tigers  and  wild  boar,  all 
experienced  sportsmen  are  unanimous  in  declaring  that  the 
first  bullet  or  spear-thrust  produces  a  far  greater  comparative 
effect  than  any  of  the  subsequent  ones  in  stopping  the 
animal.  That  peerless  old-time  fighter,  Owen  Swift,  and 
also  Young  Reid,  have  often  told  me  that  when  fighting 
according  to  the  rules  of  the  London  Prize  Ring,  it  was 
better,  after  hitting  one's  opponent  hard,  to  wait  until  he  had 
time  to  feel  its  effects  before  repeating  the  dose,  than  to 
expend  one's  strength  in  giving  him  a  rapid  succession  of 
punches.  Their  conclusions  on  this  subject  were  derived 
from  long  practical  experience. 


Photo,  by  M.  H.  Hayes. 


CHAPTER     IV. 

Training  Horses  for  Racing — Watering  Horses — Stable  Management — 
Wasting— Charlie  Bailey— Colonel  Locke  Elliot— Ben  Roberts— East 
Indian  Horses — Australian  Horses — Arab  Horses — Sheikh  Esa  bin 
Curtas — Veterinary  Work — How  Ideas  come  to  Authors — Professor 
Williams — Salmon  Fishing — Professor  Dick — Dr  Fleming — Veterinary 
Surgeons — '  The  Buffs ' — Leaving  the  Service. 

I  HAVE  had  so  much  to  do  with  training  horses  that  I 
cannot  resist  making  a  few  observations  about  this, 
my  favourite  occupation.  When  training  a  horse  for  racing, 
we  want  his  muscles  to  become  abnormally  strong  and  to 
acquire  the  ability  of  acting  quickly.  Under  healthy  con- 
ditions, the  strength  of  a  muscle  varies  according  to  the 
amount  of  its  blood  supply,  from  which  it  obtains  the 
elements  for  its  development.  The  less  exercise  is  taken 
the  slower  is  the  circulation  of  blood,  and  the  muscles  tend, 
so  to  speak,  to  become  starved  and  weak.  When  the 

5* 


52  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

amount  of  exercise  is  increased,  more  blood  is  brought  to  the 
muscles,  which  consequently  become  proportionately  stronger. 
As  the  circulation  of  the  blood  through  the  tissues  quickly 
resumes  its  normal  rate,  after  exercise  has  been  stopped  ;  it 
follows,  that  for  the  highest  development  of  muscle,  the 
exercise  should  be  of  long  duration.  The  healthy  effect  of 
exercise,  however,  can  be  obtained  only  as  long  as  it  can  be 
continued  without  fatigue,  which  produces  an  injuriously 
depressing  influence  on  the  nerves.  To  save  the  animal 
from  the  ill  effects  of  fatigue,  and  to  give  him  as  much 
beneficial  exercise  as  possible,  we  should  divide  the  work 
by  frequent  intervals  of  rest.  Thus,  instead  of  giving  all 
the  work  in  the  morning,  we  might  give,  say,  a  third  of  it  in 
the  afternoon.  We  should  also  allow  the  horse  on  which  our 
solicitude  is  bestowed,  a  roomy  loose-box,  so  that  he  might 
move  about  at  will,  instead  of  being  cooped  up  in  a  narrow 
stall.  Instead  of  giving  him  all  his  work,  '  in  once,'  as 
betting  men  say,  we  might  send  him  three  short  spins,  with 
half-an-hour's  walking  exercise  between  each.  As  he  gets 
on  in  his  training,  he  will  now  and  then  require  a  strong 
gallop  approaching  in  length  the  distance  over  which  he  has 
to  compete.  To  win  races,  horses  have  to  be  galloped,  not 
cantered  only  ;  for  speed  in  galloping  can  be  cultivated  only 
by  practice,  just  in  the  same  way  as  speed  in  boxing — but 
always  with  the  saving  clause  of  'no  fatigue.'  Applying 
the  golden  rule  of  treating  a  horse  as  I  would  wish  myself 
to  be  treated,  I  introduced  in  India  many  years  ago,  the 
practice  of  giving  a  horse  in  training  a  fairly  liberal  drink 
of  water,  immediately  after  he  had  done  his  work,  before 
sending  him  back  to  his  stable — and  with  the  happiest 
results.  By  my  example  and  writings,  I  destroyed,  in  India, 
the  old  and  cruel  myth  of  a  drink  of  water  being  dangerous 
to  the  health  of  a  heated  horse  ;  supposing,  of  course,  that 
the  water  was  not  too  cold.  Take,  for  instance,  a  man  who 
is  exhausted  and  streaming  with  perspiration  after  doing 
some  violent  work  :  What,  may  I  ask,  is  the  first  thing  that 


Training  Racehorses.  53 

he  does  ?  '  Takes  a  drink,  if  he  can  get  it,'  you  naturally 
reply.  '  And  after  he  has  had  his  whisky  and  soda,  glass 
of  beer  or  shandy-gaff,  cup  of  tea,  or  glass  of  water,  what 
does  he  say  ? '  *  By  Jove  !  that  has  done  me  a  power  of 
good/  or  words  to  that  effect,  you  answer.  Right  again,  my 
reader,  and  so  would  your  horse  say,  under  similar  circum- 
stances, were  he  able  to  speak.  But  I  fancy  I  hear  you  observe 
that  even  horses  have  been  known  to  drop  dead  from  taking 
a  drink  when  they  were  hot.  Such  instances,  I  admit,  have 
undoubtedly  occurred  ;  but  only  when  the  imbibed  fluid  was 
comparatively  cold,  in  which  cases  it  caused  death  by  nervous 
shock.  The  precaution  of  slightly  warming  the  water,  or  of 
giving  it  only  in  small  and  repeated  quantities,  is  not  difficult 
to  adopt.  In  a  field  artillery  battery  to  which  I  belonged, 
it  was  the  custom  to  water  the  horses  after  they  were  fed. 
Our  farrier-major,  luckily,  had  provided  himself  with  the 
recipe  of  Professor  Dick's  admirable  anti-spasmodic  drench 
(an  ounce  of  laudanum,  an  ounce-and-a-half  of  turpentine, 
and  a  pint  of  linseed  oil),  and  accordingly  made  himself 
locally  famous  for  his  ability  to  cure  colic  !  I  need  hardly 
say  that  the  best  practice  in  giving  water  to  horses  is  to 
allow  them  a  constant  supply  in  their  stalls.  If  that  cannot 
conveniently  be  done,  they  should  be  watered  each  time 
before  being  fed. 

Much  of  the  routine  work  of  training  is  carried  on  in 
such  an  unavoidably  mechanical  manner,  that  trainers  are 
apt  to  accept  facts  without  analysing  the  causes  of  the  results. 
In  most  cases,  whether  in  England  or  abroad,  race  horses  in 
training  get  their  gallops  at  such  a  distance  from  their  stables, 
that  they  have  the  opportunity  of  becoming  cooled  down, 
during  their  walk  home,  which,  if  we  come  to  reflect  on  it,  is 
a  potent  means  of  keeping  them  in  health.  This  fact  was 
often  prominently  brought  to  my  mind  in  India  during  stage 
journeys,  on  which  the  carriages,  either  light  four-wheelers 
or  tongas  (a  kind  of  curricle)  are  drawn  by  ponies.  The 
intelligent  native  horse-owners,  recognising  the  immense 


54  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

importance  of  walking  a  horse  which  is  heated  from  work, 
about  until  he  has  cooled  down,  not  alone  give  orders  to 
their  servants  to  this  effect,  but  sometimes  purposely  have 
the  stables  a  couple  of  miles  or  so  distant  from  the  stage 
halting-places,  so  as  to  ensure  the  observance  of  this  rule. 
As  the  scientific  discussion  of  this  question  is  outside  the 
province  of  this  book,  I  may  content  myself  with  saying  that 
all  horses,  and  especially  hard-working  ones,  will  last  much 
longer  if,  instead  of  being  put  into  their  stalls  when  they 
return  heated  from  work,  they  be  walked  about  until  their 
circulation  has  resumed  its  normal  condition.  The  observance 
of  this  precaution  is  even  more  important  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  soundness  of  an  animal's  feet  than  for  shielding 
him  from  the  evil  effects  of  chill.  If  we  consider  for  a 
moment  the  mechanism  of  the  blood  supply  to  the  feet,  we 
shall  see  how  liable  the  neglect  of  the  simple  precaution  I 
am  advocating  is  to  be  followed  by  an  attack  of  laminitis, 
or  navicular  disease.  It  would  well  repay  the  shareholders 
of  omnibus  and  tramway  companies  to  insist  that  this  rule 
should  be  observed  with  their  animals. 

Among  other  improved  methods  of  stable  management 
which  I  introduced  into  India,  I  taught  that  horses  should  be 
cleaned  by  being  hand-rubbed,  whisped  and  brushed  down, 
and  not  by  washing  them,  as  was  formerly  the  usual  practice; 
and  that  hay  or  dried  grass  should  be  given  at  the  same  time 
as  the  corn.  Withholding  the  hay  until  the  animal  has  eaten 
his  oats,  is  like  making  a  man  who  is  at  dinner,  finish  his 
allowance  of  meat  before  giving  him  any  bread  or  vegetebles. 
The  practice  now  common  in  England  of  giving  *  chop '  with 
the  oats  is  an  excellent  one.  The  bad  custom  of  washing 
horses  in  order  to  clean  them  is  practised  in  many  English 
livery  stables,  in  which  the  grooms  may  be  well  excused  for 
'  slurring  over '  their  work  by  the  fact  that,  as  a  rule,  each  of 
them  are  supposed  to  '  do '  from  six  to  nine  horses.  Wash- 
ing the  legs  is  a  fruitful  cause  of  cracked  heels  and  serves  no 
useful  purpose.  During  the  half  hour  which  is  the  least  por- 


Wasting.  55 

tion  of  time  which  should  be  devoted  to  the  cleaning  of  a 
horse's  head,  neck  and  body,  the  legs,  unless  they  are  very 
hairy,  will  have  had  full  time  to  dry,  and  the  earth  and  dust 
which  had  previously  been  mud,  can  be  easily  brushed  off. 
A  pricker  and  rubber  will  serve  to  clean  the  hoofs. 

A  short  way  back  I  mentioned  the  subject  of  wasting, 
which  is  a  weighty  one  to  many  people  besides  jockeys  and 
G.  R.'s.  To  do  it  properly  a  man  has  to  get  thin  while 
observing  the  rules  of  health.  This  procedure  can  be  carried 
out  in  only  one  way,  and  that  is  to  take  a  maximum  amount 
of  exercise  and  a  minimum  quantity  of  ordinary  food.  1 
have  met  crowds  of  such  fat  people  that  they  weren't  able 
to  see  their  toes,  and  yet  there  was  not  a  single  one  of  them 
who  did  not  insist  that  he  or  she  was  a  remarkably  small 
eater.  This  is  a  harmless  delusion  which  has  no  truth  in  it. 
Who,  I  may  well  ask,  has  ever  seen  an  under  -  fed  horse, 
especially  if  he  be  hard-worked,  inordinately  fat  ?  Although 
we  are  not  horses,  our  bodies  obey  the  same  laws  as  theirs. 
As  exercise  increases  the  appetite;  the  process  of  healthy 
wasting  demands  self-denial,  which  is  the  one  virtue  of  all 
others  that  the  ordinary  man  or  woman  finds  difficult  to 
practise.  It  is  also  unfortunate  that  the  delicacies  after 
which  we  most  longingly  crave,  are  the  very  ones  the  con- 
sumption of  which  adds  most  seriously  to  our  weight.  That 
scrape  of  butter,  that  spoonful  of  apricot  jam  just  to  finish 
up  breakfast  with,  the  sugar  in  our  tea  or  toddy  that  glass 
of  beer  which  goes  well  with  the  harmless  horse  -  radish, 
that  bit  of  fat  which  is  necessary  to  bring  out  the  flavour 
of  the  filet  de  boeuf,  that  p&te  de  fois  gras  which  makes 
capital  sandwiches,  that  trifle  or  Queen  Mab  pudding  without 
which  dinner  is  incomplete,  and  fifty  other  things  are  the  very 
ones  which  must  be  eschewed  by  the  person  who  aspires  to 
be  thin.  I  may  point  out  that  a  food  capable  of  keeping  the 
body  in  a  state  of  health  must  have  a  certain  amount  of 
vegetables  or  fruit,  and  starchy  elements,  such  as  those 
contained  in  bread,  potatoes  and  rice.  Although  starch  is 


56  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

a  fat  producer,  it  is  not  as  bad,  in  this  connection,  as  fat  or 
sugar,  and  is  a  necessity  to  health  in  our  diet.  My  advice  to 
a  person  who  wants  to  get  down  weight  and  retain  health 
at  the  same  time,  would  be  to  give  up  all  fat  and  sugar, 
reduce  the  amount  of  the  daily  ration  by  a  half  or  two-thirds 
as  the  case  might  require,  and  double,  treble  or  quadruple  the 
amount  of  the  daily  exercise.  Getting  down  weight  by  Bant- 
ing, Epsom  salts  or  other  medicines,  Turkish  baths,  and 
'  sweating,'  ruins  the  health.  I  may  mention  that  the  famous 
jockey,  John  Osborne,  continued,  till  he  was  well  over  fifty, 
to  ride  about  two  stone  under  his  ordinary  weight  and  to  keep 
his  health,  simply  by  self-denial  in  the  matter  of  eating  and 
drinking,  and  hard  exercise  in  the  form  of  daily  walks  of 
about  twenty-five  miles  in  length.  In  applying  the  adjective 
'  healthy '  to  a  man  who  has  wasted  a  great  deal  below  his 
ordinary  weight,  I  do  so,  comparatively.  Although  the 
functions  of  the  body  of  a  man  who  has  'got  off'  a  lot  of 
weight,  may  be  in  the  best  possible  condition  for  undergoing 
violent  and  prolonged  exertion,  it  is  far  less  able  to  resist  an 
attack  of  disease,  than  if  it  were  in  its  normal  state.  I  had  a 
very  sad  instance  of  this  in  the  death  of  a  great  friend  of 
mine  who,  abhorring  the  idea  of  getting  fat,  kept  himself  light 
merely  by  hard  exercise  and  by  restricting  his  food  and  drink 
within  very  moderate  limits.  Happening  to  receive  a  chill 
during  a  wet  day's  shooting,  he  got  congestion  of  the  lungs 
and  died  in  a  few  days.  The  doctors  who  attended  him  were 
convinced  that  had  he  had  more  fat  in  his  system,  he  would 
have  pulled  through  all  right.  Poor  Charlie  Bailey  of  the 
2Oth  Hussars,  who  was  one  of  the  finest  cross-country  riders 
we  have  ever  had  in  the  army,  was  a  victim  to  wasting.  On 
his  return  to  England,  after  serving  with  his  regiment  several 
years  in  India,  he  got  some  illness  which,  under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances would  not  have  been  attended  with  any  serious 
results,  and  died  right  off;  his  system  appearing  to  have  no 
recuperative  power  left  in  it. 

'  Ben '  Roberts  of  the  R.H.  A.  was  another  good  man  on 


Colonel  Ben.  Roberts.  57 

a  horse  who  did  a  deal  of  wasting,  but  had  the  sense  to  give 
it  up.  Colonel  Roberts  is  now  Chief  Constable  of  the  Metro- 
politan Police.  No  better  could  be  got ;  for  he  is  one  of  the 
few  men  who  have  been  born  to  command,  and  yet  is  pos- 
sessed of  infinite  tact  and  charm  of  manner.  No  doubt  he 
learned  something  about  *  putting  the  comehether '  on  them 
while  he  was  stationed  with  his  battery  at  Ballincollig.  I  was 
then  a  cadet  at  the  R.  M.  A.,  and  during  my  holidays  over  in 
Cork,  I  used  to  hear  extraordinary  stories  of  the  brilliant  style 
in  which  the  young  gunner,  Mr  Roberts,  used  to  *  pound ' 
out  t  hunting,  some  of  the  best  men  in  the  county.  The  last 
time  I  met  '  Ben '  Roberts  was  a  short  time  ago  in  Piccadilly. 
He  told  me  that  he  could  ride  over  a  country  as  well  as  ever, 
but  the  task  of  keeping  two  sons  in  the  army,  and  the  per- 
formance of  his  official  duties  obliged  him  to  give  up  the  old 
game.  He  looked  just  as  hard  and  fit  as  the  first  time  I  saw 
him,  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  on  board  an  Irish  Channel 
steamer,  when  he  was  bringing  over  a  County  Cork  mare  with 
which  to  win  the  Royal  Artillery  Gold  Cup  at  Woolwich. 

The  easiest  way  to  get  down  weight — without  resorting  to 
the  continued  use  of  medicine,  which  cannot  help  being  injuri- 
ous to  the  health — is  that  of  abstaining  from  taking  any  fluid 
during  meals  and  for,  say,  an  hour  and  a-half  after  meals ;  no 
restriction  being  placed  on  its  consumption  before  meals,  so 
long  as  the  one  and  a-half  hour's  interval  after  them  is 
observed.  This  I  found  very  efficacious ;  but  could  not 
continue  it,  as  it  brought  on  rheumatism,  on  account,  I 
presume,  of  the  food  being  presented  to  the  organs  of 
digestion  in  too  concentrated  a  form.  A  large  amount  of 
fluid  is  certainly  required  by  the  systems  of  most  persons, 
to,  so  to  speak,  wash  out  the  tissues  and  thus  to  prevent  the 
deposition  in  them  of  deleterious  products,  the  presence  of 
which  is  apt  to  give  rise  to  rheumatism  and  other  untoward 
results.  Acting  on  the  fact  that  the  weight  of  the  bodily 
tissues  is  largely  dependent  on  the  amount  of  water  con- 
sumed, Colonel  Locke  Elliott  kept  down  his  normal  weight 


58  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

of  about  10  stone  to  8  stone  7  Ibs.  for  several  years  by  limit- 
ing the  quantity  of  fluid  he  drank  to  one  pint,  but  made  no 
restriction  as  to  its  nature.  Under  this  privation,  he  kept  his 
health,  strength,  and  '  nerve ' ;  but  then  he  is  a  very  exception- 
ally 'hard  man.'  Had  he  done  the  most  of  his  riding  in 
England,  instead  of  in  India,  I  am  confident  that  the  public 
would  consider  him,  as  I  do,  as  good  a  horseman,  whether 
jockey  or  gentleman,  as  ever  rode  a  race. 

An  untravelled  Englishman  or  Irishman  is  apt  to  think 
that  horses   are   more  or  less  the  same  all  over  the  world  ; 
though  of  course,  in  his  opinion,  nowhere  so  good  as  in  his 
native  country.     Horses,  however,  are  so  greatly  modified  by 
the  effects  of  climate,  that  each  country,  independently  of  the 
influence  of  selection,  has  its  own  particular  type  of  animal, 
just  as  it  has  its  own  particular  type  of  man.     We  see  that 
European  children  born  and  bred  in  the  tropics,  acquire  the 
small  bones  and  delicate  physique  of  the  natives,  in  the  same 
manner  as   the  produce  of  imported  stock  loses  to   a  great 
extent  the  characteristics  of  its  sires  and  dams,  even  in  the 
first  generation.      After  three  or  four  generations,  almost  all 
trace  of  the  home  blood  will  have  disappeared.     The  type  of 
Indian  horse,  taking  it  all  round,  is  that  of  an  under-sized, 
hardy  *  weed/  capable  of  standing  a  great  deal  of  hardship,  so 
long  as  its  small  amount  of  strength  is  not  overtaxed.     At 
best  it  is  capable  of  making  an  excellent  light  cavalry  trooper 
up  to,  say,   I3st.  /lb.     At   that   limit   of  weight,   its   use,  of 
course,  would   have   to  be  limited  to  natives  of  India.     For 
many  years  and  at  an  immense  expenditure  of  money,  the 
Indian  Government  studs  fought  the  climate  by  the  constant 
importation  of  English  sires,  which  were  chiefly  imported  by  Mr 
Phillips  the  once  well  known  London  dealer.   The  costlyexotics 
thus  produced,  yielded  only  a  small  percentage  of  animals  up 
to  remount  standard  ;  but  no  permanent  effect  was  made  or 
could  be  made,  on  the  native  breed  of  horses,  which,  however 
much  stimulated  for  the  time  being,  quickly  reverted,  on  the 
relaxation   of  the  forcing  process,  to  its  original  type.     The 


Australian  Horses.  59 

good  effects  of  the  English  and  Arab  blood  are  to  be  traced 
only  among  the  native  ponies.  This  policy  of  trying  to 
establish  in  India,  a  breed  of  horses  fit  for  English  cavalry  and 
artillery  requirements  is  still  spasmodically  carried  on,  and 
with  the  same  unsatisfactory  results.  Contrary  to  what  many 
would  suppose,  the  Arab  cross  in  India  does  not,  as  a  rule, 
confer  increased  size  of  bone.  The  unfortunate  Indian  tax- 
payer, who  always  remains  unspoiled  by  the  flattery  of  being 
consulted  on  any  such  subjects,  has  borne  a  great  deal  of 
provocation  from  costly  experiments  on  his  horses.  The 
most  glaring  of  these  stupid  and  ignorant  failures  has  been 
that  of  importing  cart  and  half-bred  blood  to  give  '  bone '  to 
the  native  breed.  The  Indian  Government,  made  wiser  by 
the  stern  logic  of  facts,  now  obtains  from  Australia  its  re- 
mounts for  its  English  troops,  and  for  many  of  its  native 
cavalry. 

At  the  time  when  I  first  went  to  the  East,  the  Austral- 
asian remounts  were,  for  the  most  part,  coarse,  fiddle-headed, 
flat-footed,  three-cornered  looking  brutes,  which  contrasted 
unfavourably  with  the  neater,  though  smaller,  Arabs,  Persians 
and  country  breds  with  which  the  Indian  army  was  formerly 
horsed.  The  cause  of  this  lack  of  symmetry  in  the  Colonials 
was  the  too  free  use  of  cart  blood,  which  was  utilised  with 
the  erroneous  idea  of  quickly  getting  the  required  bone  and 
substance.  The  Australian  breeders,  however,  readily  recog- 
nised the  fact  that  'quality'  meant  money,  and  they  soon 
discovered  that  their  admirable  climate  and  virgin  soil,  by  a 
marvellous  piece  of  good  fortune,  would,  with  careful  selection 
among  thoroughbreds,  give  the  necessary  strength  without 
their  having  to  resort  to  the  admixture  of  common  strains. 
Since  then  they  have  never  '  looked  back  ' ;  but  have  gone  on, 
until  now  they  can  produce  for  army  and  ordinary  purposes, 
horses  at  a  third  of  the  price  at  which  they  can  be  got,  equally 
good,  in  any  other  part  of  the  world,  with  the  exception,  per- 
haps, of  South  America. 

Arabs,  which  at  one  time  were  the  chief  racers,  hacks,  and 


60  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

troopers  of  India,  have  been  gradually  more  or  less  displaced 
by  Colonial  importations.  Up  to  the  height  of  13.1  an  Arab 
is  not,  speaking  generally,  inferior  to  any  other  pony  as  a 
galloper.  At  14  hands,  he  is  about  equal  to  a  13.3  English 
pony ;  but  at  no  height  is  an  Arab  as  good  as  a  smart  Eng- 
lish racing  pony  of  14  hands.  I  am  taking  these  heights  from 
a  racing  point  of  view,  at  which  they  would  be,  respectively, 
about  an  inch  less  than  measurements  made  of  unshod  horses 
under  ordinary  conditions.  From  this  we  may  see  that  Arabs 
have  no  racing  pretensions.  With  few  exceptions,  they  are 
poor  jumpers  and  bad  trotters.  For  their  height,  they  are 
good  weight  carriers,  fine  stayers,  and  easy  canterers.  They 
are  sound,  have  strong  constitutions,  and  are  capable  of  stand- 
ing a  great  deal  of  work  and  privation.  They  are  generally 
quiet,  have  wonderfully  good  '  manners,'  and  are  light  hearted 
plucky  animals.  They  are  the  perfection  of  light,  irregular 
cavalry  horses.  The  one  useful  point  in  which  the  Arab 
excels  all  others  is  in  the  shape  of  his  barrel,  the  roundness 
of  which,  and  the  length  of  his  back  ribs,  give  him  unrivalled 
breathing  power.  I  love  them  for  their  associations.  Most 
of  the  Arab  dealers,  like  what  Sheikh  Esa  bin  Curtas  and 
Abdool  Rayman  were,  and  Ali  bin  Abdoola  is,  are  very  fine 
fellows.  Esa  always  dressed  in  his  national  costume,  was  a 
rigid  Mussulman,  and  was  one  of  the  most  dignified,  honour- 
able and  courteous  gentlemen  I  have  ever  met.  In  late  years, 
after  he  had  left  Calcutta  and  had  settled  in  Bombay,  I  used 
greatly  to  enjoy  paying  him  a  visit  at  his  stables,  and  was 
always  received  by  the  old  chief  with  a  smile  of  welcome  and 
a  kindly  greeting,  principally  I  think  because  he  looked  upon 
me  as  one  of  the  few  links  between  a  happy  past  and  an  in- 
significant present.  After  cigarettes  and  coffee  had  been 
brought,  he  would  always  ask  for  news  about  our  mutual  and 
dear  friends,  General  and  Mrs  Monty  Turnbull ;  and  then  he 
would  talk  of  Lord  Mayo,  Lord  Ulick  Brown,  and  others  of 
the  old  Calcutta  supporters  of  racing,  whom  we  both  knew. 
The  last  time  he  returned  to  the  scene  of  his  former  joys, 


Sheikh,  Esa  bin  Curtas.  61 

which  were  all  connected  with  horses,  was  at  Christmas  i888> 
when  he  won  the  Calcutta  Arab  Derby  with  Fancy ;  the 
second  being  a  horse  which  I  had  trained.  After  he  returned 
to  Bombay,  he  wrote  me  a  letter  in  which  he  deplored  the 
preference  accorded  to  Australian  horses  (Walers)  over  Arabs. 
'  It  is  a  well-known  fact,'  he  said,  *  that  the  blood  of  the  Arab 
horse  has  spread  through  the  world,  and  has  improved  the 
breed  of  horses  from  the  time  of  the  Prophet  Soloman.  There 
are,  I  hear,  some  officers  who  disapprove  of  Arab  horses  as 
chargers  and  for  cavalry,  and  consequently  give  preference  to 
Walers.  We  ought  not  to  forget  that  it  was  the  Arab  horses 
which  were  in  requisition  in  former  years  for  the  conquest  of 
India  and  Kabul  when  Walers  were  not  in  existence.  It  is  a 
thousand  pities  that  Calcutta,  being  the  centre  of  the  sporting 
community,  has  neglected  to  give  in  the  races  a  portion  in 
the  share  of  justice  to  the  Arabs  ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  gives 
all  advantage  and  benefits  to  the  wild  Walers  and  country 
breds  who  have  legs  like  unto  the  stem  of  a  hookah.'  '  The 
Walers,'  he  added  in  delightfully  quaint  style,  '  are  too  big 
and  wild  for  the  status  of  men  of  the  present  day,  and  the 
Lord  has  not  created  man  to  the  present  time  equal  for  them.' 
I  could  not  help  thinking,  as  I  read  my  dear  old  friend's 
letter,  that  I  would  have  had  a  very  poor  show  during  my 
breaking  tour  through  India,  if  the  Lord  had  made  the 
average  man  equal  unto  the  untamed  Waler. 

Although  I  acquired  from  practice  and  from  the  advice  of 
more  experienced  men  than  myself,  a  good  knowledge  of 
training  and  riding  ;  I  felt  that  I  was  greatly  handicapped 
by  my  ignorance  of  veterinary  matters.  To  somewhat 
remedy  this  deficiency  I  spent  a  year's  furlough  at  Professor 
Williams'  Veterinary  College  in  Edinburgh.  The  principal 
and  his  professors  were  kindness  itself  in  answering  the  con- 
stant '  Why  ? '  which  was  on  my  lips.  Having  obtained  the 
solution  of  a  sufficiency  large  number  of  questions,  I  wrote  a 
book  which  I  knew  would  have  been  of  great  use  to  me 
twelve  months  previously,  and  which  I  concluded  would  be 


62  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

helpful  to  persons  who  were  in  search  of  reasoned-out  know- 
ledge on  horses.  I  wrote  as  a  man  who  had  not  had  time  to 
forget  how  ignorant  he  had  been.  The  work  was  an  echo  of 
my  few  student  days,  and  I  accordingly  called  it  Veterinary 
Notes  for  Horse  Owners.  The  only  bit  of  originality  about 
this  first  edition  was  the  fact  of  its  having  been  written  by  a 
confessedly  ignorant  man  for  others  who  were  more  ignorant 
than  himself.  We  can  judge  correctly  of  the  requirements  of 
other  people,  only  by  our  own  wants,  or  by  our  own  lately 
remembered  wants.  Had  I  delayed  writing  it  until  now,  it 
would  not  have  proved  the  success  it  has  been.  I  have  made 
it,  in  each  succeeding  edition,  the  repository  of  all  the  useful 
veterinary  information  (as  regards  horses)  which  I  have  ac- 
quired from  time  to  time,  and  am  certain  that  none  of  my 
readers  consult  it  with  so  much  benefit  as  I  do  myself. 

I  may  here  make  a  brief  personal  statement  with  reference 
to  the  oft  asked  question  :  How  do  authors  write  books  ?  As 
Balzac  happily  puts  it,  ideas  spring  up  in  the  mind  like 
truffles  in  the  plains  of  Perigord.  They  come,  but  cannot  be 
forced  :  at  least,  I  find  it  so.  I  have  only  once  sat  down  to 
write  a  book,  and  having  finished  it,  not  at  all  to  my  satisfac- 
tion, I  took  good  care  not  to  accept  its  paternity  as  the  author. 
The  first  hint  I  receive  of  having  to  write  a  book,  is  a  gradu- 
ally developed  feeling  that  my  mind,  unconsciously  to  myself, 
has  produced  a  number  of  mental  fungi  (I  do  not  venture  to 
term  them  truffles),  which  retard  the  growth  in  me  of  other 
forms  of  brain  produce.  When  this  cerebral  harvest  is  com- 
plete, I  find  that  the  only  way  to  get  rid  of  it,  is  to  collect  it 
together,  and  cook  it  into  a  literary  plat,  called  a  book,  which 
I  give  to  the  public  to  consume.  Or  I  might  liken  it  to  the 
germination,  development,  and  birth  of  an  accident  d*  amour, 
the  delivery  of  which  relieves  me  from  an  intolerable  mental 
load.  .  And,  then,  what  I  am  pleased  to  call  my  mind,  remains 
fallow,  until,  perchance,  again  unconsciously  stimulated  to 
production.  So  you  see  that  I  am  an  absolutely  irresponsible 
agent. 


Veterinary  Surgeons.  63 

Professor  Williams  is  a  man  for  whom  I  have  a  great 
admiration ;  for  he  is  original.  Had  it  not  been  for  that 
love  of  originality  with  which  I  have  been  troubled  during 
all  my  life,  I  would  have  remained  in  the  army  and  would 
have  become  a  colonel  or  perhaps  a  major-general.  But 
originality  is  the  antithesis  of  routine,  by  the  practice  of 
which,  our  actions  become  automatic,  and  we  ourselves  are 
converted  into  machines.  Professor  Williams  is  a  man  of 
keen  observation,  independent  action,  enthusiastic,  and  has 
the  rare  gift  of  explaining  to  others  what  he  knows.  When 
he  has  once  said  a  thing,  he  sticks  to  it,  which  is  adorable 
when  it  takes  the  form  of  saying  that  one — no  matter  who — 
will  give  either  of  us  a  fiver  ;  but  is  liable  to  lead  to  compli- 
cations in  laying  down  the  law  on  scientific  subjects  which 
have  not  been  thoroughly  thrashed  out.  The  founder  of  the 
great  Scotch  school  of  veterinary  surgeons  was  Professor  Dick, 
who  was  a  man  of  fine  natural  parts,  and  was  also  *  infallible.' 
Of  his  many  clever  students,  Williams  was  undoubtedly  the 
most  original ;  Fleming,  the  hardest  working ;  and  *  Joe ' 
Anderson,  the  best  judge  of  a  horse.  Professor  Robertson 
was  thoroughly  sound  ;  but  he  would  write  English  a  la 
Herbert  Spencer,  and  consequently  his  Equine  Medicine  is  a 
sealed  book  to  those  of  us  who  must  read  fast,  or  not  at 
all  Dr  Fleming  worked  his  way  up  with  rare  pluck,  and 
placed  a  large  amount  of  valuable  French  veterinary  litera- 
ture within  the  reach  of  a  profession  among  whom  there  are 
few  linguists.  He  did  yeoman  service  in  getting  an  Act  of 
Parliament  for  R.C.V.S. ;  and  he  improved  the  official  status 
of  army  veterinary  surgeons,  so  that  they  are  now  received  at 
Court.  His  share  of  the  Jubilee  honours  was  only  a  C.B. 
It  should  at  least  have  been  a  K.C.B.  The  clamour  for  cheap 
veterinary  education  has  greatly  retarded  the  advancement 
of  the  veterinary  profession.  Fees  of  £13  a  year  were 
thought  to  be  sufficient  to  pay  for  the  instruction  in  the 
art  of  healing  animals  !  The  old  timers,  who  had  been 
chiefly  recruited  from  the  sons  of  blacksmiths  and  of  small 


64  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

shopkeepers,  were  wont  to  exclaim  when  the  inadequacy  of 
such  a  payment  was  pointed  out  to  them  :  '  If  the  fees  are 
raised,  how  can  the  sons  of  poor  men  get  into  the  profession  ? ' 
— as  if  the  profession  was  to  be  maintained  solely  for  the 
benefit  of  the  male  offspring  of  indigent  parents  !  On  the 
contrary,  the  determination  of  the  fees  should  solely  depend 
on  the  amount  requisite  for  obtaining  adequate  instruction. 
This  view  is  now  in  the  ascendant,  and  I  may  safely  say  that 
in  the  near  future,  veterinary  surgeons  will  have  just  reason 
to  consider  that  they  belong  to  a  learned  profession. 

In  veterinary  literature,  Professor  Williams  is  a  worthy 
successor  of  Professor  Percivall,  who,  not  alone  understood 
his  subject  from  a  scientific  point  of  view,  but  was  able  to 
write  correct  and  elegant  English.  Professor  Williams,  as  a 
veterinary  author,  is  unrivalled  in  the  description  of  'symp- 
toms.' He,  like  a  true  artist,  puts  down  only  what  he  sees, 
and  consequently  the  pages  of  his  books  are  full  of  local 
colour,  without  a  trace  of  that  fatal  gift  of  imagination  which 
has  made  other  horse  and  cattle  pathologists  spoil  good  pens, 
ink  and  paper  in  writing  about  non-existent  diseases.  To 
know  him  is  indeed  a  liberal  veterinary  education.  Con- 
trary to  the  dishonest  system  of  running  up  a  bill  or  of 
doing  '  something '  to  conceal  one's  ignorance  of  the  true 
state  of  affairs,  Professor  Williams  advised  his  pupils  in  all 
cases  of  doubt  to  adopt  an  expectant  policy  ;  to  reserve  their 
opinion  ;  to  put  great  trust  in  nursing ;  to  give  '  stimulants ' 
only  as  long  as  the  beer  or  whisky  improved  the  patient's 
appetite ;  to  be  chary  in  administering  medicine  unless  its 
employment  was  clearly  indicated  ;  and,  if  doing  nothing- 
acted  well,  to  continue  the  treatment.  I  need  hardly  say  that 
these  admirable  rules  are  as  applicable  to  human  beings  as 
they  are  to  horses.  Professor  Williams  is  a  cheery  com- 
panion, full  of  anecdote,  and  (as  he  has  always  told  me) 
an  enthusiastic  salmon  fisher.  My  old  friend,  Colonel  '  Joe ' 
Anderson,  who  sometimes  accompanied  Professor  Williams 
with  a  long  rod  and  a  pocket-book  of  flies  on  his  trips  to  the 


'  The  Buffs:  65 

Tweed,  says  that  salmon  fishing  is  a  delightful  sport  :  beau- 
tiful scenery,  charmfng  company,  delicious  bannocks  and 
haggises,  and  unrivalled  whisky.  But  as  the  only  'sawmon 
fesh '  Joe  ever  brought  back  from  these  expeditions  was  a 
kippered  one,  which  he  took  home  to  show  his  friends  that 
he  had  really  been  on  the  river  ;  I  do  not  think  that  he 
knows  very  much  about  the  gentle  art. 

Although  my  serious  outdoor  occupation  during  the  cold 
months  in  India  was  racing  and  chasing,  I  did  a  good  deal 
of  race  reporting  for  local  papers.  I  also  occupied  myself 
with  the  study  of  Oriental  languages,  and  was  fortunate 
enough  to  obtain  a  Government  grant  of  £300  for  having 
passed  the  High  Proficiency  examinations  in  Hindi  and 
Urdu.  I  made  several  shooting  excursions  into  the  Hima- 
layas during  the  hot  weather  when  there  was  no  racing. 

During  the  year  which  I  spent  in  *  The  Buffs,'  I  was  very 
happy,  and  I  parted  with  regret,  on  both  sides,  from  Colonel 
Morley  and  his  officers.  My  reason  for  leaving  the  service 
was  that  after  I  had  exchanged  into  'The  Buffs'  from  the 
Bengal  Staff  Corps,  I  found  that  I  would  have  to  retire  on 
a  pension  of  £200  on  reaching  the  age  of  forty  years,  on 
account  of  not  getting  my  majority  before  that  time. 
This  rule,  I  may  remark,  was  introduced  by  Mr  Cardwell  to 
relieve  the  congestion  in  the  junior  ranks  due  to  the  abolition 
of  the  purchase  system.  As  I  had  still  three  years  to  run,  I 
thought  it  best  to  employ  them  to  some  good  purpose  and  to 
take  a  bonus,  than  to  wait  until  I  got  turned  out. 


.  £y  ./If.  #".  Hayes. 


CHAPTER    V. 

A  Horse  Registry — Captain  Lynx — A  Book  on  Riding — Mr  Stanley  Berkeley 
—  Mr  Alfred  Watson— The  Old  Castilian— Mr  Joe  Radcliffe— Mr  Phil. 
Robinson — Mr  Sinnett — Poker — Mr  Allen — The  Field — Mr  Comyns  Cole 
— Mr  William  Martin — Mr  Edwin  Martin — Dalmeny  and  Perkun. 

HAVING  left  the  Service,  I  returned  in  1880  to  London, 
where  I  met  a  strange  character  in  a  Captain  Lynx, 
which  was  not  his  name,  though  it  is  near  enough  for  the 
purpose.  He  was  an  Irishman,  and  had  been  in  the  army. 
He  was  mad  upon  getting  up  a  horse  registry,  on  very  similar 
lines  to  the  one  which  Lord  Marcus  Beresford  at  present 
manages.  Having  been  talked  over  by  Lynx,  I  got  a  major 
in  the  Bengal  Cavalry  to  join  in,  and  we  three  took  an  office 
and  rooms  in  St.  George's,  Knightsbridge.  I  *  found '  the 
money  to  start  the  campaign  of  saving  people  the  trouble 
of  buying  and  selling  horses  :  we  would  do  all  that  for  them. 
Lynx  was  too  hard  up,  and  the  Major  and  I  knew  too  little 

66 


Horse  Dealing.  67 

of  business  to  render  success  possible  ;  but  we  had  a  very 
jolly  time  of  it.  Lynx  was  an  amusing  fellow.  The  world 
had  gone  dreadfully  hard  with  him,  and  his  name  no  doubt 
took  some  living  up  to.  His  heart  and  soul  were  in  horse 
dealing ;  but,  alas,  without  the  money.  In  his  direst  straits, 
his  only  thought  was  to  make  a  '  bit '  by  getting  a  horse  for 
a  man.  He  was  a  good  judge,  and  knew  how  to  'show'  a 
horse ;  but  he  was  too  hard  up  to  go  *  straight/  and  had  out- 
lived or  out-lasted  his  friends.  The  firm  ate  and  drank  of  the 
best,  amused  itself,  and  kept  a  ledger  and  day-book  unsoiled 
by  ink.  After  three  or  four  months'  fooling  I  got  sick  of  the 
game,  and  said  I'd  play  no  more.  I  was  sorry  for  Lynx  ; 
though  he  would  not  or  could  not  work  for  the  firm.  He  had 
an  inexhaustible  fund  of  yarns,  and  talk  about  horses  and 
men  he  had  met,  and  like  a  true  Irishman,  bore  his  misfortunes 
with  a  light  heart  He  was  getting  old  and  losing  his  nerve  ; 
yet  his  spirit  was  always  buoyed  up  with  day-dreams  of 
a  house  in  the  country,  and  a  stable  full  of  hunters.  I 
wondered,  while  I  listened  to  his  hopeful  words ;  for  I  knew 
his  *  friends '  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  him — one's 
'  friends '  are  always  that  way  inclined  when  one's  boots 
imperfectly  keep  one's  feet  off  the  pavement.  At  the  time 
of  our  parting,  my  relations  with  him  were  strained  ;  because, 
the  day  before,  he  had  appeared  in  a  new  suit  of  clothes,  and 
with  the  air  of  having  done  himself  particularly  *  well,'  and 
I  knew  that  his  statement  about  a  remittance  from  his 
'  friends '  was  figurative.  I  naturally  thought  that  he  had 
'  done  a  deal '  which  had  not  passed  through  the  firm  ;  yet, 
I  believe,  I  wronged  him.  A  year  passed  by  and  I  had 
almost  forgotten  all  about  my  whilom  partner,  when  I 
suddenly  met  him  at  Tattersall's  looking  dreadfully  ill  in 
a  magnificent  fur  coat  and  got  up  regardless  of  expense. 
You  could  have  knocked  me  down — well,  not  quite  with  a 
feather ;  but  with  a  small-sized  pillow.  His  day-dreams  had 
at  last  come  true.  He  had  a  nice  house  in  the  country,  and 
a  stable  full  of  horses ;  but  his  fortune  came  too  late.  He 


68  Among  Men  and  Horses. 


<5 


was  too  sick  to  ride,  and  he  had  sent  his  well-chosen  horses 
up  to  Tattersall's  to  be  sold.  The  explanation,  you  ask? 
Well,  it  was  the  old  story  of  the  unalterable  devotion  of  a 
woman,  whose  wealthy  father  would  not  hear  of  their  union. 
She,  all  through  his  evil  days,  had  remained  his  friend ;  and 
married  him  when  her  father  died.  By  the  irony  of  fate, 
the  cup  of  happiness  was  hardly  at  his  parched  lips,  before 
death  dashed  it  aside,  and  poor  Lynx's  troubled  life  was 
ended  at  last  in  peace. 

I  did  not  much  mind  the  collapse  of  our  horse  registry 
scheme ;  for  about  that  time  I  became  aware  that  a  book  on 
riding  was  becoming  developed  in  my  mind.  I  wrote  it 
chiefly  from  a  racing,  chasing,  and  hunting  point  of  view,  and 
called  it  Riding  on  the  Flat  and  Across  Country.  I  met  a 
young  artist  who  at  that  time  was  chiefly  engaged  in  making 
drawings  and  designs  for  '  process '  work.  Although  his 
talent,  of  which  he  has  lots,  had  not  been  directed  to  horses, 
he  illustrated  my  book  very  creditably,  considering  that  I, 
who  acted  as  his  teacher  in  this  line,  knew  extremely  little 
about  the  way  in  which  horses  ought  to  be  drawn.  I  was 
steeped  in  empirical  traditions  of  equine  conformation.  Had 
I  known  more,  I  might  have  helped  him  over  many  difficulties 
connected  with  the  correct  delineation  of  horses.  Although 
my  young  friend,  who  is  now  the  well-known  artist,  Mr 
Stanley  Berkeley,  has  made  his  fame  and  money  in  other 
branches  of  painting,  I  trust  that  he  will  study  The  Points 
of  the  Horse,  which  I  have  lately  published  ;  for  in  it  he  will 
find  the  solution  of  many  problems  which  puzzled  us  both  in 
the  year  1880.  The  success  of  Riding  on  the  Flat  and  Across 
Country  came  quickly,  thanks  chiefly  to  the  generous  re- 
ception it  obtained  from  the  London  press.  I  was  fortunate 
to  meet  the  editor  of  The  Illustrated  Sporting  and  Dramatic 
News,  Mr  Alfred  Watson,  who  did  me  several  good  turns  in 
his  own  columns  and  also  in  The  Standard,  of  which  he  was 
the  music  critic  before  he  joined  Mr  Webling.  I  used  to  see 
a  good  deal  of  him  in  those  days,  and  contributed  now  and 


The  Old  Castilian.  69 

then  to  his  paper.  A  brighter  writer  on  sporting  matters 
treated  with  a  light  touch,  and  a  kinder-hearted  man  it  would 
be  impossible  to  find.  He  is  a  first-rate  journalist  and  a  very 
capable  music  critic.  To  his  admirable  judgment  as  editor, 
Mr  Webling  is  indebted  for  the  success  of  the  /.  5.  and  D.  N. 
of  which  he  is  proprietor.  That  paper  is  to  be  seen  every- 
where in  England  and  has  an  enormous  foreign  circulation. 
I  know  this  from  Thacker  &  Co.,  who  are  the  chief  suppliers 
of  literature  to  India  ;  from  Cave  &  Co.,  to  Ceylon  ;  from 
Kelly  &  Walsh,  to  China  and  Japan  ;  Darter  Bros.  &  Walton, 
to  South  Africa  ;  and  from  other  caterers  of  books  and 
journals  to  distant  lands.  The  esteem  in  which  it  is  held  is 
well  merited,  thanks  to  Mr  Watson,  whose  crisp  'circular 
notes '  are  eagerly  looked  forward  to,  week  after  week,  by 
many  a  home-sick  exile. 

Captain  Jones, 'The  Old  Castilian,'  also  helped  to  give  my 
book  on  riding  some  friendly  pushes.  He  was  one  of  the 
pleasantest  guests  at  a  dinner  party,  and  one  of  the  most 
brilliant  utterers  of  carefully  planned  impromptus  ever 
known.  Like  many  other  men  about  town,  his  mode  of  life 
was  an  enigma.  He  worked  as  little  as  the  proverbial  lilies 
of  the  field,  and  though  not  quite  as  gaily  arrayed  as  they, 
his  attire  was  immaculate,  his  cigars  of  Havanna,  and  he 
habitually  travelled  in  cabs.  Professionally  he  was  a  journal- 
ist and  would  have  made  his  fortune  with  his  pen,  if  he 
could  have  written  as  well  as  he  spoke.  Besides,  the  manual 
labour  of  producing  '  copy '  carefully  and  punctually  was  too 
irksome  a  task  for  his  easy-going  nature.  He  was  nominally 
on  the  staff  of  The  Pink  'Un,  whose  sparkling  columns  were 
enlivened  by  many  a  droll  tale  of  his  doings  and  sayings, 
though  by  little  contributed  by  himself.  Poor  Jones  worked 
hard,  by  amusing  the  members  and  sampling  the  drink  and 
suppers,  to  render  the  Lotus  Club  a  success.  By  encouraging 
the  others,  he  paid  his  way  right  royally,  even  if  '  Fatty '  Cole- 
man  went  through  the  formality  of  entering  the  Old  Casti- 
lian's  name  on  the  slate.  Though  '  paddocked '  for  life,  he 


yo  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

dearly  loved  the  '  great  game,'  which  he  had  once  played  as 
an  owner.  I  spent  many  a  pleasant  hour  with  him  at  New- 
market and  elsewhere,  talking  racing,  and  observing  (not 
'  watching,'  please)  the  form  and  shape  of  horses.  He  was 
full  of  good  intentions  to  write  a  history  of  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  of  racing,  and  many  a  time  we  discussed  its  outlines 
and  contents.  No  one  could  have  written  it  better  than  he  ; 
but  he  lacked  the  necessary  determination  to  sit  down  and 
tackle  his  subject.  He  had  many  friends  who  kept  him 
'  going ' ;  and,  though  close  on  sixty,  by  his  wonderful  fasci- 
nation of  manner,  was  as  *  dangerous '  to  pretty  women  as  to 
a  hero-worshipping  boy.  If  he  got  a  'bit'  to  go  on  with,  he 
always  respected  the  debt,  and  liked  to  pay  it  back,  though 
very  rarely  in  coin.  Looking  through  an  old  book  of  press 
notices,  I  see  that  I  am  more  in  his  debt  than  he  in  mine. 
One  day  I  missed  him,  and  the  next  day  I  heard  he  was 
dead.  He  was  a  man  of  the  present,  without  a  future.  A 
man  to  be  loved,  even  if  he  could  not  be  respected.  A  man 
to  be  more  kindly  remembered  than  regretted. 

Another  man  who  was  about  town  in  those  days,  was 
poor  Joe  Radcliffe.  He  was  one  of  those  men  who  should 
never  have  gone  near  a  race-course.  He  started  in  life  as 
a  gentleman,  scholar,  owner  of  a  large  property,  and  a 
thorough  sportsman ;  but  he  was  impulsive,  incapable  of 
thinking  evil  of  others,  extravagant,  and  easily  led.  He 
was  generous  and  kind-hearted  to  a  fault,  and  would  not, 
by  word  or  deed,  have  hurt  the  feelings  of  his  worst  enemy, 
even  if  he  had  one.  Instead  of  listening  to  the  counsels  of 
his  trainer,  before  his  horse,  Salvanos,  won  the  Cesarewitch, 
he  took  the  advice  of  the  parasites  who  surrounded  him, 
and  had  the  mortification  of  failing  to  back  the  winner.  To 
atone  for  this  neglect,  he  made  such  a  desperate  plunge, 
again,  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  his  trainer,  on  Salvanos 
for  the  Cambridgeshire,  that  the  defeat  of  his  horse  ruined 
him  ;  for  he  parted  with  every  penny  he  had,  to  settle  his 
debts.  He  was  always  cheery,  never  complained,  did  not 


Phil.  Robinson.  71 

seem  to  feel  his  change  of  circumstances  or  the  coldness  of 
old  friends  who  gradually  drew  away  from  him  ;  but  the  iron 
no  doubt  had  entered  his  soul ;  for  he  did  not  live  long  to 
point  a  moral. 

I  had  also  a  friend  in  Mr  Phil.  Robinson,  who,  as  we  all 
know,  has  made  his  mark  in  English  belles  lettres.  The 
father,  'Julian  the  Apostate/  as  he  was  called — for  he  was 
once  a  clergyman  in  the  Church  of  England,  but  gave  the 
office  up — was  a  very  able  journalist  in  India,  where  Phil, 
served  his  literary  apprenticeship.  I  used  to  see  a  good 
deal  of  Phil.  Robinson  in  the  early  Seventies  when  he  was 
on  the  Allahabad  Pioneer  with  Mr  A.  P.  Sinnet  as  editor, 
and  Mr  Allen  as  proprietor.  The  staff  of  the  Pioneer,  both 
regular  and  outside,  has  always  been  strong,  even  admitting 
the  fact  that  I  used  to  write  for  it.  The  Indian  Family 
Robinson  was  full  of  talent.  Though  strangely  volatile,  they 
neither  drank  nor  gambled,  but  suffered  from  that  restless- 
ness and  impatience  of  control  with  which  the  possessors  of 
genius  are  ofttimes  afflicted.  Phil,  was  manifestly  too  good 
for  provincial  journalism;  so  he  gravitated  to  London,  and 
made  his  name  as  a  leader  writer  on  the  Daily  Telegraph, 
a  war  correspondent  of  the  Daily  News,  and  as  an  author. 
His  brother  Kay — a  rare  good  sort — after  serving  his  time  on 
the  Globe,  went  out  to  the  Pioneer,  and  is  now  editor  of  the 
Lahore  Civil  and  Military  Gazette,  which  is  a  smart  paper. 
While  Phil,  was  yet  'under  the  punka,'  I  used  often  to  go 
down  from  Cawnpore,  where  I  am  stationed,  to  play  poker 
with  the  Allahabad  sportsmen,  of  whom  Mr  Sinnet  (that 
was  before  his  Blavatsky  craze)  was  a  prominent  member. 
He  had  learned  poker  in  China,  when  he  was  editor  of  the 
Shanghai  organ,  the  North  China  Daily  News  (if  I  remember 
rightly)  in  the  good  old  tea-clipper  days  of  Dent  and  Jardine, 
and  had  written  a  book  on  the  game.  I  had  not  much  respect 
for  his  method  ;  for  I  thought  it  was  too  mechanical.  It  was, 
in  fact,  more  adapted  for  a  game  of  cards,  than  for  one  of 
human  character,  which  poker  undoubtedly  is.  A  man  who 


72  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

can  play  poker  is  bound  to  succeed  in  any  calling.  This 
reminds  me  of  the  Yankee  story  of  a  young  poker  player 
who  asked  the  father  of  his  sweetheart  for  permission  to 
marry  her.  '  Never/  replied  the  indignant  parent,  '  shall  I 
consent  to  allow  my  daughter  to  marry  a  man  who  plays 
poker.'  'You  might  do  worse,'  pleaded  the  young  man. 
'  How  so  ? '  asked  the  father.  '  You  might/  retorted  the  lover, 
'  let  her  marry  a  man  who  thinks  he  can  play  poker/ 

The  Allahabad  poker  players  all  got  'broke'  one  hot 
season,  when  I  was  not  present,  thank  goodness  !  A  young 
gentleman  of  the  Indian  Currency  Department  hoped  there 
was  no  harm  at  his  looking  on  at  the  game  of  *  draw/ 
Though  he  couldn't  afford  to  play  it ;  still  it  interested  him, 
and  he  had  read  all  the  papers  from  home,  and  there  was 
no  new  literature  with  which  he  could  kill  the  time.  '  Why, 
certainly/  was  the  reply  from  the  old  stagers  who  shrewdly 
suspected  that  the  youth  could  not  long  resist  the  tempta- 
tion of  joining  in.  They  were  right,  though  he  held  out 
longer  than  they  thought  he  would  have  done ;  just  long 
enough  to  know  the  exact  style  of  game  each  of  them  played  ; 
and  then  after  much  pressing,  he  took  a  hand,  and  in  a  short 
time  won  all  their  money,  and  all  the  *  scrip '  they  were  good 
for.  He  then  purchased  a  comfortable  annuity  with  his  gains, 
and  has  since  that  time  steadily  refused  to  play  anything 
more  exciting  than  the  violin. 

Mr  Sinnet,  as  editor  of  the  Pioneer,  used  to  draw  over 
£200  a  month.  Think  of  that  ye  Fleet  Street  scribes !  It 
was,  however,  not  enough  to  induce  him  to  keep  his  newly- 
found  theosophy  out  of  the  paper ;  so  the  proprietor,  Mr 
Allen,  got  another  editor.  Mr  Allen  is  a  man  of  great 
energy,  and  has  the  rare  gift  of  organisation.  He  com- 
menced business  as  a  chemist  and  druggist  in  India,  at  a 
time  when  he  could  get  a  rupee  (worth  then  2s.  2d.)  for  what 
one  could  have  obtained  in  London  for  the  odd  coppers.  And 
quite  right  too  ;  for  I  don't  suppose  he  went  to  India  for 
amusement  or  for  the  good  of  his  health,  any  more  than  other 


Being  One  s  Own  Critic.  73 

people  do.  He  made  money  fast,  and  when  he  found  that 
the  trade  in  pills,  powders  and  lotions  was  not  as  good  as  it 
had  been,  he  retired  and  bought  the  Pioneer,  which  he 
managed  according  to  big,  open-handed  ideas.  He  soigne'^ 
the  Government  and  particularly  the  ladies  who  pulled  all 
the  loose  official  strings  upon  which  they  could  put  their 
pretty  and  unprincipled  hands.  He  gave  le  beau  monde  at 
Simla  picnics,  presents,  balls  and  fetes,  and  was  repaid  in  the 
usual  way  by  information  which  helped  to  make  the  Pioneer 
the  most  valuable  newspaper  in  India.  Mr  Allen  panted  for 
social  and  political  advancement.  Although  at  last  he  got 
decorated,  it  was  only  with  a  C.I.E.  Indian  society,  though 
quite  ready  to  eat  his  excellent  dinners,  drink  his  expensive 
wines,  and  accept  his  costly  presents,  would  not  fraternise 
with  anyone  who  had  been  in  trade.  In  this  respect  it  is  far 
more  '  select '  than  royalty.  I  believe  that  its  extraordinary 
exclusiveness  is  due  to  the  fact  that  a  considerable  proportion 
of  its  members  are  sons  of  tradesmen  or  of  shopkeepers. 
The  only  way  a  man  like  Mr  Allen  could  gain  the  intimacy 
of  Indian  society  is  by  keeping  a  strong  racing  stable, 
— verb.  sap. 

Phil.  Robinson  once  gave  me  a  piece  of  advice  which  I 
have  found  very  useful.  Speaking  about  the  difficulty  I  often 
experienced  in  judging  of  the  merits  of  my  own  literary  work, 
he  replied  that  if  my  writing,  on  reading  it  over,  pleased  me, 
the  probability  would  be  that  it  would  please  the  public ;  but 
that  if  I  did  not  feel  satisfied  with  it,  the  best  thing  to  do 
would  be  to  tear  it  up.  In  other  words,  that  an  author  should 
be  his  own  most  careful  critic.  Anyhow,  an  author  cannot,  in 
his  heart,  feel  satisfied,  or  even  pleased  with  work  which  he 
has  in  any  way  slurred  over.  The  well-known  and  particu- 
larly wise  remark  that  no  one  is  strong  enough  to  play  tricks 
with  one's  public,  is  specially  applicable  to  literature. 

The  Field  has  always  been  a  very  kind  friend  to  me. 
Professor  Brown,  Principal  of  the  Royal  Veterinary  College 
(Camden  Town),  who  I  believe  is  its  veterinary  editor,  has 


74  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

frequently  said  a  good  word  in  its  columns  for  my  Veterinary 
Notes.  Mr  Comyns  Cole,  its  chief  racing  reporter  and  *  Van 
Driver'  of  Bailey,  has  often  given  me  a  helping  hand.  He 
is  a  charming  writer,  accomplished  scholar,  and  polished 
gentleman  of  the  stately  old  school.  Another  able  man  on 
the  splendid  staff  of  The  Field  is  Mr  Blew,  who  is  a  capable 
horseman,  as  well  as  as  a  clever  journalist. 

A  journalist  for  whom  I  had  a  sincere  friendship,  was  poor 
William  Martin,  the  late  'Special  Commissioner'  of  The  Sport- 
ing Life.    His  father  was  Mr  Martin,  the  old  Newmarket  trainer 
who  used  to  look  after  the  famous  Tim  Whiffler.    His  brother, 
Edwin  Martin,  won  the  Cambridgeshire  on  Bathilde,  and  now 
trains    for  Mr  John  Corlett    and  '  Mr   Morton,'  who  owned 
Dalmeny.     Poor  Bill   Martin  was    as    fine  a  fellow  as  ever 
walked   in  shoe  leather ;  '  straight,'  independent,  and   bright. 
He   had   been   brought   up  among   horses   and    knew  their 
*  points '  to  perfection.     I  saw  a  great  deal  of  him  and  his 
worthy  brother   Edwin,  both  of  whom  were  kindness   itself 
to  us  when   we  lived  in  Newmarket.      In   connection   with 
Edwin,  who  is  a  careful  and  able  trainer,  I  may  mention  the 
following  incident  which  is  illustrative  of  the  way  in  which 
trials  sometimes  go  wrong.     Having  Dalmeny  ready  for  the 
Goodwood  Stewards'  Cup  of  1885,  and  wishing  to  find  out  if 
his  candidate  was  in  form,  he  *  put  him  together '  with  the 
Russian-bred    horse,    Perkun.      Between   two   animals    there 
could  hardly  have  been  a  greater  difference.     Dalmeny  was 
a  small   horse,  all  wire   and  whipcord  ;  while  the   foreigner 
was  of  great  height  and  substance.     In  the  trial  over  a  short 
distance,  the  big  horse  so  effectively  'smothered'  the  little 
one,  that   Mr   Martin   naturally  advised  the  owner  and   Mr 
Corlett  not  to  back  him.     '  Mr  Morton '  is  one  of  those  fine, 
stubborn   Englishmen   who   would  sooner  lose    money  than 
have  a  horse  of  his  run  unbacked  for  a  big  race.     He  was 
rewarded  for  his  pluck;  for  his  'got  on'  his  ^"300  (I  believe 
that  was  the  amount  he  wagered)  at  a  good  price,  and  Dal- 
meny won  cleverly.     The  explanation  of  the  misleading  trial 


Perkun.  75 

was  that  Mr  Morton's  horse  was  one  of  the  game  sort  which 
require  the  stimulus  of  an  actual  race  to  make  them  put  forth 
their  full  powers ;  while  Perkun  was  a  soft-hearted  customer 
who  ran  much  better  in  private,  than  he  would  do  in 
public. 


Photo,  by  M.  H.  Hayes. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


Cramming — Militia  Subalterns — A  Book  on  Tactics — Mr  John  Hubert  Moore 
— Horse  Breaking — Writing  New  Editions — Mr  John  Sturgess — A  Book 
on  the  Shape  and  Make  of  Horses — Newmarket — Mr  John  Hammond — 
— St  Gatien— Mr  John  Corlett — The  Sporting  Times— '  Gubbins ' — 
'  Shifter ' — The  Earnings  of  Jockeys  and  Trainers — Irish  Horses  in 
England — Touting — Mr  Townsend,  the  Horse  Painter — Mr  Oswald 
Brown — Mr  Allan  Sealy — Mr  Sam  Waller — Mr  Briton  Riviere — Mr 
Haywood  Hardy — Mr  John  Charlton. 

AFTER  having  brought  out  my  book  on  Riding,  and 
looked  on  at  a  season's  racing  in  England,  I  began 
to  feel  that  I  would  like  a  new  sensation.  Colonel  Kinchant, 
who  was  an  old  racing  friend  and  who  afterwards  commanded 
the  nth  Hussars,  on  hearing  my  plaint  (for  we  used  to  go 
about  a  great  deal  together),  suggested  that  I  should  try  my 
hand  at  army  cramming !  '  You  are  an  old  Gunner/  said  he  ; 
'  and  you  are  smart  at  mathematics,  drawing  and  all  that  sort 
of  things,'  he  was  kind  enough  to  add  ;  '  so  all  you  have  got 

76 


Cramming.  77 

to  do,'  he  continued,  'is  to  come  with  me  and  I  will  intro- 
duce you  to  a  man  who  will  get  you  a  job  ! '  I  expressed  my 
grateful  acquiescence  and  we  went  to  Mr  Orellana's  agency, 
which  is  in  Conduit  Street.  Mr  Orellana,  a  charming  man, 
received  us  most  kindly,  and  having  listened  to  my  'cherubim  ' 
friend's  outrageously  flattering  'patter'  as  to  my  teaching 
abilities,  said  that  he  could  put  me  on  to  a  good  appointment 
right  off.  He  was  a  man  of  his  word,  and  in  a  few  days  after 
that  I  was  installed  as  a  teacher  of  fortification  and  military 
topography  at  the  Rev.  Mr  Pritchard's  army  cramming  (I 
really  forget  the  exact  title  the  worthy  'rector'  applied  to 
his  place)  establishment,  on  a  comfortable  salary.  My  dear 
reader,  please  do  not  indignantly  exclaim  :  '  The  fellow  ought 
to  have  been  had  up  for  obtaining  money  under  false  pre- 
tences ;  for  how  the  mischief  could  he  have  managed  to  have 
kept  himself  au  courant  with  the  enormous  advances  made  in 
those  branches  of  military  science,  since  he  had  left  "The 
Shop  "  ? '  Very  easily,  I  may  reply  ;  for  my  pupils  were  young 
militia  officers  going  up  for  '  The  Army  Competitive '  ex- 
aminations, by  which  they  hoped  to  obtain  commissions. 
Though  the  numbers  entered  for  each  event  were  enormous, 
the  '  form '  to  contend  against  was  moderate  in  the  extreme. 
The  dear  boys  in  physique,  manners,  and  sporting  instincts, 
were  the  beaux  ideals  of  what  British  subalterns  should  be. 
They  knew  how  to  fight,  ride,  row,  play  cricket,  make  love, 
and  take  their  own  part  in  anything  that  did  not  require 
the  exercise  of  brains.  They  had  usually  commenced  their 
'  cram '  career  by  a  resolution  to  enter  the  Indian  Civil  Ser- 
vice. Being  unable  to  master  the  difficulties  of  dictation, 
they  thought  they  would  have  a  better  chance  of  Woolwich, 
but  found  the  gates  of  the  Royal  Military  Academy  closed 
against  them,  on  account  of  their  inability  to  understand  the 
meaning  of  what  a  square  root  was.  Their  third  hope  was 
Sandhurst ;  but  here  again  want  of  ordinary  education  was 
a  bar  to  their  ambition.  Happily  for  them,  Government 
opens  a  little  back  door  for  militia  subalterns  who  can  learn 


78  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

up  an  extremely  small  amount  of  fortification,  military  topo- 
graphy, military  law  and  tactics,  none  of  which,  as  far  as 
militia  subalterns  are  concerned,  requires  any  knowledge  of 
literature,  art  or  science.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  neither 
the  militia  nor  the  country  obtains  any  good  by  these  army 
candidates  being  obliged  to  obtain  commissions  in  the  militia 
before  they  are  eligible  to  compete  for  commissions  in  the 
army.  It,  however,  limits  that  form  of  army  competition  to 
the  sons  of  comparatively  rich  men,  who  can  afford  to  pay 
for  uniform,  and  for  the  expenses  of  the  necessary  number 
of '  trainings.' 

Mr  Pritchard,  I  must  add,  made  his  young  men  comfort- 
able, and  did  his  best  to  induce  them  to  '  pass.'  I  remained 
with  him  some  months,  and  then  went  to  resume  my  veter- 
inary studies  at  Edinburgh.  In  order  to  pay  my  way,  I 
continued  to  '  coach '  militia  subalterns,  and  was  very  suc- 
cessful in  getting  them  to  pass.  They  liked  me  and  I  was 
fond  of  them.  I  tried  to  manoeuvre  them  in  the  same  way 
that  Tom  Cannon  would  handle  a  wayward  two-year  which 
had  been  spoiled  in  its  breaking  in ;  for  they  were  almost  all 
rank  jibbers  at  book  work.  I  kept  on  cramming  for  about 
three  years,  during  which  time  I  took  out  my  veterinary 
diploma.  At  last  that  unfortunate  propensity  of  writing 
books  again  seized  hold  of  me,  and  I  produced  The  Student's 
Manual  of  Tactics.  It  happened  in  this  wise.  Militia  sub- 
alterns had  got  into  such  a  habit  of  learning  the  official 
manual  of  tactics  by  heart,  and  then  answering  the  questions 
they  were  set,  by  verbatim  extracts  from  it,  that  although  the 
examiners  had  to  confine  the  contents  of  their  papers  to  the 
subjects  treated  on  in  the  official  books,  they  would  give  but 
little  credit  for  this  mechanical  method  of  answering.  It 
being  hopeless  to  expect  that  the  dear  boys  would  read  up 
the  literature  of  the  subject ;  I  did  that  for  them,  and  com- 
piled a  work  from  which  they  could  obtain  all  the  informa- 
tion they  required.  I  may  mention  that  TJie  Times  and  other 
papers  said  a  lot  of  nice  things  about  my  new  literary  depart- 


Mr  John  Hubert  Moore.  79 

ure.  Before  I  published  this  book,  I  delighted  in  the  teach- 
ing of  tactics  ;  for  it  required  a  certain  amount  of  research  and 
originality  to  collect  the  required  facts  and  to  combine  them 
with  the  requisite  amount  of  skill.  When  the  book  was 
printed,  I  realised  for  the  first  time  that  I  had  henceforth 
to  employ  a  labour-saving  machine,  instead  of  working  with 
my  brains.  Military  law  consisted  of  learning  up  50x3  or 
600  possible  questions ;  fortification  was  as  bad  ;  military 
topography  not  much  better ;  and  here  was  tactics,  the  one 
redeeming  subject  of  the  four,  placed  on  a  purely  mechanical 
basis.  This,  as  poor  Artemus  Ward  used  to  say,  was  a  darned 
sight  too  much,  especially  as  a  yearning  to  get  back  again 
among  horses  was  growing  on  me  more  and  more.  The 
chance  at  last  arrived.  I  threw  away  my  military  books,  and 
I  departed  on  my  travels.  In  clearing  off  the  account  of  my 
cramming  experiences,  I  find  I  have  run  off  the  line,  so  shall 
now  hark  back  to  pick  it  up  again. 

During  the  winter  months  of  1876-77,  which  I  spent  in 
Edinburgh  at  Professor  Williams'  Veterinary  College,  I  had 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr  W.  H.  Moore,  who  was  also 
studying  at  the  same  place,  and  who  has  since  developed 
into  a  famous  G.R.,  even  as  his  brother  Garratt  did.  Before 
we  went  to  Edinburgh  in  1881,  we  received  an  invitation 
from  Willie  Moore  to  come  and  stay  with  his  father,  who  had 
a  training  stable  at  Jevington,  near  Eastbourne,  and  who  had 
in  his  string,  among  others,  Liberator,  Theodora  and  Pompeia. 
The  old  man,  John  Hubert,  was  known  all  over  Ireland,  and 
through  a  good  part  of  England,  as  an  extraordinary 
*  character.'  He  might  justly  be  called  the  Father  of  Irish 
Steeplechasing,  and  has  had,  probably,  more  to  do  with  the 
cross-country  game  than  any  man  alive.  At  that  time  he 
was  a  tall,  gaunt,  powerful-looking  man  of  about  seventy, 
and  a  terrible  *  tyrant,'  as  they  say  in  Ireland.  When  roused 
to  anger  (and  faith  it  didn't  take  much  to  set  him  on),  he 
had  an  effective  way  of  clearing  a  room — generally  after 
dinner  in  an  hotel,  during  a  race  meeting  or  horse  fair — by 


80  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

seizing  a  table,  sideboard,  or  even  a  heavy  chair,  dashing  it 
on  the  ground,  and  belabouring  his  opponents  with  its 
larger  fragments.  He  taught  his  sons  and  stable  lads  to  ride 
over  the  biggest  country,  by,  as  he  used  to  boast,  making 
them  more  afraid  of  him  than  of  falling  off.  His  favourite 
commentary  on  broken  limbs  and  dislocated  necks  was  : — 
*  They  that  take  by  the  sword,  shall  perish  with  the  sword.' 
He  was  the  teacher  of  many  great  horsemen.  Barring  being 
a  bit  short  in  the  temper,  he  was  a  fine  trainer,  and  the  best 
breaker  in  Ireland,  which  was  a  fact  that  I  had  treasured  up 
in  my  mind  ;  for  breaking  was  the  subject  connected  with 
horses  about  which  I  was  most  ignorant,  and  on  which  I 
longed  most  for  information.  I,  therefore,  went  to  Jevington, 
determined  to  leave  it  wiser  than  I  came.  Mr  Moore,  like 
many  other  enthusiasts,  invested  his  methods  with  a  good 
deal  of  mystery,  which  had  become  more  habitual  to 
him  than  intentional.  His  system  chiefly  consisted  of  the 
use,  on  foot,  of  the  long  reins  (see  Illustrated  Horse- 
Breaking],  which  he  had  been  taught  to  handle,  when  a 
boy,  by  an  old  Irish  breaker  called  Fallen.  He  liked, 
when  breaking,  to  fix  the  position  of  a  horse's  head  by 
means  of  a  bearing-rein  and  standing  martingale  buckled 
on  to  the  rings  of  the  snaffle.  He  maintained,  and  very 
justly,  that  the  great  point  in  making  a  '  reluctant '  horse 
jump,  was  to  bring  him  up  to  the  spot  from  which  he  ought 
to  take  off;  that  the  next  thing  was  to  make  him  more 
anxious  to  get  to  the  other  side  than  to  remain  where  he 
was  ;  and  that  both  these  operations  could  be  best  done  by 
the  use  of  the  long  reins.  Mr  John  Hubert  Moore  is  a  man 
impossible  to  'pump,'  and  was  far  from  communicative  on 
the  subject  about  which  I  was  most  interested.  Up  to  that 
time,  I  knew  no  other  way  of  breaking  in  horses  than  by 
riding  them  with  patience  and  good  hands.  These  excellent 
agents  always  took,  in  my  case,  a  comparatively  long  time 
to  effect  their  purpose,  and  often  failed — for  instance,  with 
hard  pullers  and  old  refusers.  Of  course  I  knew  Rarey's 


Mr  John  Hubert  Moore.  8 1 

system ;  but  acquaintance  with  it  gave  me  no  hint  to  cure 
any  vice,  except  that  of  kicking,  biting,  or  other  outrageous 
conduct.  The  gospel  of  the  long  reins  and  standing  martin- 
gale (I  rejected  that  of  the  bearing-rein)  was  a  revelation  to 
me,  in  that  it  gave  me  some  exact  ideas  on  the  proper  way 
to  give  a  horse  a  good  mouth,  and  to  make  him  jump. 
Though  a  '  tyrant '  when  thwarted,  Mr  Moore  is  a  grand 
specimen  of  that  almost  extinct  class,  an  Irish  gentleman  of 
the  old  school :  hospitable,  kind-hearted,  generous,  and  fear- 
less ;  but  if  you  have  the  good  fortune  to  meet  him,  take  my 
advice,  don't  argue  with  him,  and  don't,  in  his  hearing,  air 
your  sympathy  with  the  Home  Rulers,  or  there  will  be 
'  ructions '  in  which  I  would  be  very  sorry  to  join.  Mr  Moore, 
I  am  glad  to  hear  from  his  son  Willie,  still  retains  much  of 
his  old  fire.  Two  years  ago  he  claimed  Viscount  out  of  a  sell- 
ing steeplechase,  which  thoroughly  legitimate  proceeding  so 
incensed  the  owner,  who  was  accustomed  to  the  usual  family 
party  arrangement,  that  he  refused  to  lend  Mr  Moore  a 
bridle  or  halter  with  which  to  take  the  horse  to  his  stable. 
Ever  ready  for  an  emergency,  Mr  Moore  put  his  brawny 
right  arm  round  the  animal's  neck  and  thus  led  him  away 
without  anything  on  his  head,  amid  the  cheers  of  the  by- 
standers. Garratt  happened  to  tell  this  story  to  an  English 
friend,  who,  not  knowing  the  strength  of  the  old  man,  pro- 
tested that  it  would  be  impossible  to  thus  master  an  impetuous 
thoroughbred.  '  You'd  think  differently,'  replied  the  famous 
horseman,  who  had  not  forgotten  the  discipline  through 
which  he  had  gone  at  the  hands  of  his  father  in  his  young 
days,  '  if  he  had  his  arm  round  your  neck.' 

As  the  first  edition  of  Riding  on  the  Flat  and  Across 
Country  went  off  quickly,  I  carefully  revised  it  and  got 
Mr  John  Sturgess  to  illustrate  it.  I  may  explain  that  if 
I  happen  to  read  a  book  which  I  have  had  published  for 
a  few  months,  and  have  thus  banished  it  from  my  mind  for 
the  time  being ;  I  find  that  I  have  left  out  much  which  I 
ought  to  have  said,  and  said  much  which  I  ought  to  have 

F 


82  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

expressed  differently,  if  not  actually  omitted.  Hence, 
when  I  have  the  fortunate  opportunity  of  bringing  out  a 
new  edition,  I  always  feel  compelled  to  re-write  the  entire 
work ;  for  I  never  can  satisfy  myself  by  mere  marginal 
corrections.  I  think  it  was  Benjamin  Franklin  who  said 
that  the  setting  up  of  type  was  the  most  valuable  instruction 
in  English  composition  he  had  ever  received ;  for  during 
this  tedious  process  he  had  full  opportunities  of  analysing 
the  (  copy,'  and  specially  of  noting  faults  of  redundancy  and 
ambiguity.  As  '  composing  '  was  to  Franklin,  so  re-writing 
has  been  to  me  the  most  efficient  means  of  improvement  in 
style,  for  which,  I  freely  confess,  there  still  remains  ample 
room.  Anyway,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  finality  in  art. 
Pains  at  literary  work  are  well  spent  ;  for,  as  it  has  been 
truly  remarked,  hard  writing  makes  easy  reading,  and  vice 
versa.  Another  advantage,  which  an  author  has,  of  re- 
writing and  re-illustrating  a  book  for  a  new  edition,  is  that  the 
fact  of  its  having  been  given  a  different  garb,  will  induce  many 
persons  who  already  possess  a  copy  of  the  old  edition,  to 
invest  in  one  of  the  new  issue.  I  have  mentioned  that 
Mr  Sturgess  illustrated  the  second  edition  of  my  book  on 
riding.  He  did  the  work  admirably,  and  carried  out  my 
ideas,  which,  by  the  light  of  more  extended  experience,  now 
appear  to  me  crude  in  many  instances ;  but  that,  of  course, 
was  not  his  fault.  His  horses,  or  perhaps  I  might  more 
correctly  say,  his  horse,  was  so  well  known  to  the  public  by 
means  of  the  Illustrated  Sporting  and  Dramatic  News,  that, 
after  the  second  edition  had  appeared,  almost  everyone  who 
spoke  about  it  to  me,  declared  that  they  had  previously  seen 
the  same  illustrations  in  Mr  Webling's  paper.  This,  really, 
was  not  the  case  ;  for  Mr  Sturgess,  in  the  most  painstaking 
way,  had  made  separate  studies  for  each  of  the  drawings  he 
did  for  me.  I  fully  grant  that  his  horses  in  Mr  Watson's 
paper  have  an  extraordinary  family  likeness  to  each  other : 
a  fact  which  cannot  be  wondered  at.  A  man  who  has  to 
draw,  week  after  week,  for,  say,  twenty  years,  horses  to 


Drawing  Horses.  83 

illustrate  constantly  recurring  subjects  at  so  much  a  page, 
can  scarcely  escape  becoming  '  mannered  '  in  his  mode  of 
pictorial  expression.  It  is  futile  under  the  ordinary  conditions 
of  such  commercial  contracts  to  expect  that  he  should  or  could 
make  separate  studies  of  the  particular  animals,  which  alone 
could  enable  him  to  give  individuality  to  each  of  them. 
Hence,  with  the  best  intentions  in  the  world,  he  gradually 
adopts  the  suicidal  method  of  tracing  his  horses  according  to 
his  mental  stencil  plate,  instead  of  drawing  their  actual 
portraits.  Then,  again,  what  tricks  that  mischievous  imp, 
imagination,  plays  with  many  artists  who  illustrate  periodical 
literature.  While  leading  the  draughtsman  down  the  smooth 
slopes  of  its  own  domain,  it  deprives  him  little  by  little  of 
the  ability  of  seeing  things  as  they  are,  until  at  last 
his  drawings  are  all  on  one  plane,  without  any  *  guts/ 
as  picture  -  dealer  term  the  rendering  of  the  different 
'  values.' 

After  leaving  Edinburgh,  I  stayed  a  short  time  in  Cam- 
bridge, '  cramming '  militia  subalterns  for  the  army,  and  then 
went  on  to  Newmarket.  I  may  explain  that  my  reasons  for 
going  in  regularly  to  become  a  member  of  the  R.C.V.S.,  was 
to  improve  my  knowledge  and  to  strengthen,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  public,  my  writings  on  horse  subjects,  and  especially  on 
veterinary  matters.  I  arrived  in  Newmarket,  full  of  a  book  I 
had  in  my  head  about  equine  conformation,  or,  to  use  a  popular 
expression,  the  make  and  shape  of  horses,  which  had  always 
been  a  subject  of  deep  interest  to  me.  I  had,  however,  made 
no  progress  in  it ;  for  I  could  find  no  teacher,  either  oral  or 
printed,  from  whom  I  could  obtain  satisfying  instruction. 
Although  I  had  a  fair  share  of  practical  experience,  I  was 
utterly  ignorant  of  the  true  principles  of  the  science,  and  con- 
sequently did  not  attach  any  importance  to  them.  I  had 
waded  through  the  literature  of  the  subject  without  much 
benefit.  The  English  books,  such  as  those  of  Percival, 
Carson,  Stonehenge  and  Fitzwygram,  had  no  '  why  ? '  in 
them  at  all.  Bourgelat,  Merche  and  Lecoq  were  better  in 


84  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

this  respect ;  but  their  view  was  directed  to  an  animal  on 
the  dissecting  table  and  not  in  action.  I  had  yarned  about 
the  conformation  of  horses  with  my  racing,  hunting  and 
veterinary  friends  for  so  many  years,  and  had  tried  so  hard 
to  draw  practical  deductions  about  it,  that,  in  my  self-conceit, 
I  considered  I  was  capable  of  posing  as  an  instructor,  and 
accordingly  wrote  a  book.  It  of  course  contained  all  the  old 
silly  platitudes  about  the  desirability  of  a  horse  being  '  long 
and  low/  'good  to  follow,'  etc.  Following  the  footsteps  of 
my  predecessors,  I  tried  to  gauge  the  merits  of  all  horses,  by 
comparing  them  with  an  ideal  steed  of  my  own  conception.  I 
wrote  this  book,  added  some  illustrations,  made  all  arrange- 
ments for  its  publication,  gave  the  MS.  to  a  friend  to  take  to 
the  printer,  and,  as  I  have  explained  in  the  preface  of  a 
recent  work,  never  saw  it  again  ;  for  my  friend  luckily  forgot 
it  in  a  hansom,  and  cabby  appears  to  have  wisely  considered 
that  it  was  not  worth  the  trouble  of  taking  to  the  Scotland 
Yard  lost  property  office,  which  I  haunted  for  weeks  in  a 
state  of  desperation.  I  became  soon  consoled  for  my  loss  ; 
for  every  day's  experience  gained  at  Newmarket,  forced  on 
me  the  conviction  that  the  empirical  conclusions  which  I 
had  desired  to  commit  to  print,  were  crude  and  faulty  in  the 
extreme.  About  the  same  time  I  got  an  opportunity  of  read- 
ing Professor  Marey's  Machine  Animate,  and  Dr  Pettigrew's 
small  work  on  the  same  subject.  Light  had  at  last  come  ! 
I  at  once  rejected  all  the  rule-of-thumb  fables  ;  and  set  my- 
self to  seriously  study  the  horse  as  a  living  locomotive,  and 
to  investigate  the  differences  in  construction  demanded  by 
the  requirements,  respectively,  of  speed  and  strength.  To 
test  my  conclusions,  I  invested  in  a  six-foot  tape  measure, 
which  I  placed  in  my  pocket,  ready  to  run  the  rule  over 
any  animal  whose  points  I  wished,  and  was  permitted,  to 
examine  carefully.  This  rigid  method  soon  convinced  me 
that  the  more  a  horse  approached  the  heavy  cart  type,  the 
longer  and  lower  did  he  become,  and  vice  versa,  I  need  not 
allude  to  this  subject  further ;  as  it  is  fully  discussed  in  The 


Photo,  by  Dickinson  &•>  Foster •,  114  New  Bond  Street,  W. 


MR  JOHN  CORLETT. 


Newmarket.  87 

Points  of  the  Horse,  which  I  was  unable  to  complete,  hard 
though  I  worked  at  it,  until  last  year  (1893). 

The  Newmarket  society,  which  I  principally  frequented, 
was  generally  to  be  found  in  the  evening  at  Mr  Chenell's 
White  Hart  Hotel.  The  chief  habitues  were  Mr  Jack  Ham- 
mond, Tom  Brown,  Bill  Jarvis,  'Old  Tom,'  'Young  Tom,' 
Hunt,  Alf.  Sadler,  Jim  Goater,  Mr  Sabin,  Harry  Day,  and  a 
few  casuals.  They  were  a  very  pleasant  lot  of  fellows,  barring 
4  Old  Waterworks.'  Mr  Hammond  is  a  credit  to  Newmarket. 
Different  from  many  who  rise  from  the  ranks,  he  never  forgot 
old  friends,  of  whom  he  had  many,  and  he  was  continually 
doing  kind  and  thoughtful  actions  in  helping  the  poor  and 
unfortunate.  He,  like  Jarvis,  has  very  charming  manners 
and  a  smile  that  does  one  good  to  see.  Every  one  who  knew 
him  was  delighted  with  his  luck  in  1884,  when,  with  the  aid 
of  that  wonderful  pair,  St  Gatien  and  Florence,  he  won  the 
Manchester  Cup,  divided  the  Derby,  won  the  Gold  Cup  at 
Ascot,  the  Cesarewitch  and  Cambridgeshire,  and  wound  up 
by  being  presented  to  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  warmly 
shook  him  by  the  hand,  and  congratulated  him  on  his  good 
fortune.  Regarding  Mr  Hammond  merely  as  a  professional 
racing  man,  one  might  have  thought  that  his  methods  would 
have  been  tortuous  and  his  actions  veiled  in  mystery.  Nothing 
of  the  kind.  When  he  fancied  one  of  his  horses  for  a  race,  he 
made  no  secret  of  his  hopes,  and  gave  the  tip  straight  enough 
with  scarlet  and  white  (his  colours)  flowers  in  his  button-hole. 
I  remember  making  a  remark  to  him  on  the  day  St  Gatien 
won  the  Cesarewitch,  about  the  greatness  of  the  task  his 
magnificent  three-year  old  had  with  8  st.  10  Ibs.  to  carry, 
and  his  reply  :  *  The  others  have  a  bigger  task  to  beat  him.' 
On  that  day  arid  over  that  distance,  I  think  the  son  of 
Rotherhill  or  The  Rover  was  the  best  horse  I  have  ever 
seen.  Of  course  you  will  think  I  'went  Nap.'  No,  I  did 
not.  Instead  of  putting  on  a  '  monkey,'  which  I  could  easily 
have  done  '  on  the  nod,'  I  invested  the  only  two  sovereigns  I 
had  at  the  time  in  my  pocket,  and  won  £16.  You  see  it  is 


88  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

no  use  imparting  a  'good  thing'  to  a  man  who  hasn't  the 
pluck  to  bet  more  than  he  can  pay. 

Our  chief  amusement  at  the  White  Hart  was  pool  ;  and 
it  was  a  '  warm '  one.  Cards  were  limited  to  long  whist. 
Tom  Jennings  generally  managed  to  secure  Jim  Goater  as 
his  partner.  He  then  had  three  to  two  the  best  of  his  adver- 
saries— which  was  moderate  for  him.  Young  Tom  is  a  well- 
educated,  gentlemanly  fellow. 

During  the  race  weeks,  I  used  to  see  Mr  John  Corlett,  and 
had  often  a  talk  with  him  about  horses.  As  he  was  one  of 
the  family,  having  married  a  Miss  Stebbings,  he  of  course 
puts  up  at  the  Rutland  Arms,  which  is  the  aristocratic  hotel 
in  Newmarket.  The  trainers  divide  their  patronage  between 
it  and  the  White  Hart,  which  is  the  chief  place  of  call  for  the 
jockeys.  The  other  sportsmen  are  principally  to  be  found  at 
the  Greyhound,  which  is  kept  by  Mr  Riley  of  coursing  cele- 
brity. Many  persons  who  are  unacquainted  with  racing  are 
wont  to  imagine  that  Mr  Corlett's  paper  The  Sporting  Times y 
alias  The  Pink  'Un,  is  wholly  given  up  to  remarkably  clever 
though  slightly  risky  jokes  and  funny  stories.  It  contains,  on 
the  contrary,  an  amount  of  turf  erudition  in  its  leading  article 
—written  by  Mr  Corlett — that  is  worth  ten  times  the  price 
asked  for  the  entire  paper.  Although  the  pleasantry  which 
sparkles  through  its  columns  is  no  doubt  heightened  by  an 
acquaintance  with  the  genial  staff,  and  is  veiled  to  a  certain 
extent  by  an  affected  absence  of  polish,  it  is,  frequently,  of 
marvellously  high  merit  from  a  literary  point  of  view,  and  is 
always  acceptable  to  men  of  the  world  as  a  producer  of  a 
hearty  laugh..  The  editor  is  wont  to  playfully  assume  that 
owing  to  the  'festive'  tendencies  of  the  staff,  the  Pink  'Un 
is  in  a  chronic  difficulty  of  being  in  time  for  publishing  day. 
Although  the  office  in  52  Fleet  Street  is  not  run  on  abso- 
lutely teetotal  principles,  the  working  and  responsible  editor 
performs  his  part  in  a  business-like  manner  which  leaves 
nothing  to  be  desired,  My  friend  '  Gubbins '  is  a  thorough 
worker,  and  puts  in  a  lot  of  good  '  copy  '  unfathered  by  his 


Photo,  byj.  Robinson  cr"  Sons,  172  Regent  Street,  W. 

'NATHANIEL  GUBBINS.' 


'  Nathaniel  Glib  bins'  91 

name.  The  first  time  I  saw  him  was  in  the  late  Sixties  at 
Umballa,  when  he  was  a  handsome  young  officer  in  the  army. 
He  kept  racehorses,  was  a  first-rate  gentleman  rider  and 
amateur  trainer,  and  could  hold  his  own  with  Sir  Seymour 
Elaine,  who  was  called  on  account  of  his  good  looks  '  The 
Destroying  Angel,'  poor  George  Joy,  Walter  Harbord, '  Bobby' 
Soames,  '  Ben '  Roberts,  and  others  who  used  to  play  '  the 
great  game '  in  India  long  ago.  He  is  a  capital  actor,  and 
it  is  '  kind '  for  him,  as  we  say  in  Ireland  ;  for  he  is  a  descend- 
ant of  Garrick  ;  the  last,  I  believe.  He  is  a  fine  fellow  in 
every  way,  and  the  best  of  good  company.  I  also  frequently 
saw  'The  Shifter,'  who  is  clever,  intensely  amusing,  kind- 
hearted  to  a  fault,  and  hasn't  an  enemy  bar  himself.  A  funny 
thing  about  Mr  Corlett  is  that  not  content  with  the  immense 
success  which  the  Sporting  Times  has  obtained,  he  loves  to 
'  run '  a  second  weekly  paper  which  changes  its  name  as  well 
as  its  colour  from  time  to  time.  The  last  alteration  was  that 
of  TJie  Bird  of  Freedom  to  The  Man  of  the  World. 

While  staying  at  Newmarket,  one  cannot  help  being 
struck  by  the  immense  amount  of  money  earned  by  some  of 
the  trainers  and  jockeys.  At  first  glance,  the  author,  artist, 
or  man  of  abstract  science  might  be  tempted  to  disclaim 
against  the  partiality  of  Dame  Fortune,  who  rains  gold  on 
comparatively  uneducated  men,  but  leaves  him  parched  and 
thirsty,  with  often  not  enough  for  a  '  drink.'  In  this  plaint 
there  is  no  more  justice  than  in  one  against  the  giving  of  a 
few  large  prizes  in  a  lottery,  in  which  there  was  an  enormous 
number  of  low-priced  tickets  taken.  Although  men  are  not 
born  equal ;  they  are  certainly  born  with  equal  rights,  which 
they  may  or  may^  not  get.  The  few  jockeys  and  trainers 
who  can  drink  champagne,  dress  their  wives  in  fashionable 
clothes  and  pay  their  way,  form  an  extremely  small  percent- 
age of  men  who  have  spent  their  lives,  which  was  all  they 
had  to  give,  in  the  vain  endeavour  to  obtain  a  sufficiency  of 
bread,  cheese,  New  Zealand  mutton,  '  four  ale,'  shag  tobacco, 
five  shillings  a  week  for  rent,  and  the  price  of  a  few  second- 


92  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

hand  '  duds '  now  and  then.  The  envious  one  probably 
thinks  himself  superior  to  the  man  of  horses  on  the  score  of 
education,  as  if  that  of  books  were  the  only  kind.  I,  as  one 
who  has  had  experience  of  both,  can  say  that  there  is  more 
improving  knowledge  to  be  acquired  from  practical  experi- 
ence with  men  and  horses  than  from  books,  the  mere  study  of 
which  affords  but  poor  mental  training.  It  has  been  well 
said  that  no  man  is  wiser  for  his  book  knowledge.  Besides, 
money  is  the  concomitant  of  business,  not  of  pleasure.  Had 
my  object  in  life  been  the  making  of  money,  I  would,  instead 
of  devoting  my  time  to  horses  and  the  writing  of  books 
about  them,  have  taken  up  some  lucrative  trade,  such  as  that 
of  a  butcher  or  draper.  A  wise  man  into  whose  soul  the  iron 
had  entered,  has  said  that  literature  is  a  good  stick  but  a 
poor  crutch.  Philistines  will  inveigh  against  the  wickedness 
of  '  the  boys '  who  will  do  anything  but  work.  They'll  hang 
about  public  houses  in  wintry  weather  till  they  get  drenched 
to  the  skin  ;  they'll  tramp  on  foot  scores  of  miles  to  attend  a 
race  meeting ;  they'll  sleep  on  door  steps  ;  they'll  bear  the 
pangs  of  hunger  and  thirst,  until  they  cut  their  throats  or 
drown  themselves  ;  but  they  won't  work.  I  have  a  very  kind 
spot  in  my  heart  for  men  of  this  disposition;  for  I  am  'given' 
that  way  myself.  I  love  to  t  mess '  away  my  time  with 
horses,  photography,  patents  about  saddles,  mineralogy, 
books,  or  any  of  my  other  '  fads '  ;  but  having  had  in  my 
old  age  to  forsake  all  mes  folles  amours,  I  am  just  at  present 
in  the  pursuit  of  some  steady  commercial  undertaking  which 
would  bring  in  more  money  than  amusement. 

Newmarket  is  exceptionally  well  endowed  in  the  matter  of 
training  grounds,  both  on  the  Bury  side  and  the  race  side,  as 
the  two  divisions  of  the  Heath  made  by  the  Station  Road  and 
Exning  Road  are  called.  When  the  turf  begins  to  get  hard, 
the  Limekilns,  which  are  specially  favoured  by  nature  and 
which  are  on  the  Bury  side,  are  utilised  for  work.  The  grass 
grown  in  the  neighbourhood  is  admirably  suited  for  horses, 
as  we  might  judge  from  an  inspection  of  the  local  butchers' 


Touting.  93 

shops,  in  which  we  shall  find  that  the  mutton  is  far  better 
than  the  beef,  which  fact  shows  that  the  grass  is  of  the  fine 
quality  relished  by  sheep  and  horses,  and  not  of  the  coarse, 
rank  kind  with  which  cattle  like  to  fill  their  enormous 
paunches.  I  may  mention  that  when  Irish  racehorses  are 
brought  over  to  England  to  be  trained,  they  generally  show 
that  the  change  has  been  of  benefit  to  them  from  a  galloping 
point  of  view  :  an  improvement  which  I  am  inclined  to  put 
down  to  the  superiority  of  English  over  Irish  hay  as  a  food 
for  horses.  The  emerald  hue  of  the  grass  in  Ireland  indicates 
that  it  is  apt  to  be  too  rank  for  training  requirements. 

The  disease  of  touting  is  endemic  in  Newmarket.  From 
Rodney  who  had  built  himself  an  observatory  from  which  he 
used  to  search  out  the  country  from  the  Limekilns  to  the 
July  Course  with  a  telescope  that  was  able  to  bring  Jupiter's 
satellites  to  within  a  mile  of  the  Heath,  to  the  child  in  arms, 
all  who  are  not  owners,  trainers,  jockeys,  officials,  or  'mugs' 
like  myself,  send  or  want  to  send  '  winners '  to  clients.  My 
washerwoman  was  a  tout,  who  '  gave  herself  away '  to  me 
by  handing  me  one  day  her  circular  of  terms  by  mistake  for 
the  washing  bill.  In  this  circular,  she  posed  as  the  father  of 
one  of  the  leading  jockeys !  The  desire  which  possesses  the 
British  public  of  gaining  information  about  the  merits  of  race 
horses,  so  that  they  may  back  winners,  is  to  me,  the  height  of 
folly.  What  great  advantage  can  it  be  to  us  to  know  that  a 
certain  horse  is  '  meant,'  or  that  his  owner  fancies  him  ;  when 
the  intentions  and  hopes  of,  say,  a  dozen  owners  in  the  same 
event  have  not  been  disclosed  to  us.  .Even  if  we  did  know 
them,  how  could  we  tell  which  to  '  follow '  ?  You  may  reply 
that  if  it  is  good  enough  for  Mr  Abledealer  to  back  his 
animal,  it  is  good  enough  for  you  or  me  to  do  so.  Quite 
right,  supposing  Mr  A.  had  truthfully  unburdened  his  mind 
to  us  or  to  our  tout,  and  also  supposing  that  we  could  get  a 
correct  *  price.'  Book-makers,  like  other  folk,  must  live  ;  to 
say  nothing  about  the  wearing  of  diamonds  and  the  drinking 
of  champagne.  Their  finger  is  on  the  pulse  of  the  market,  so 


94  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

they  can  tell  from  whence  comes  the  money,  and  if  they  find 
that  a  genuine  commission  has  issued  from  a  dangerous 
quarter,  they  will  lower  the  odds  below  their  proper  value. 
It  is  no  good  for  me  to  know  that  in  a  field  of  twenty,  a 
certain  horse  has  a  three  to  one  chance,  when  the  fielders  will 
lay  only  three  to  two  about  him.  No  maxim  is  truer  than 
that  betting  on  other  people's  horses  is  a  fool's  game. 

With  the  fear  of  being  touted  ever  on  them,  the  Newmarket 
trainers  are,  and  quite  rightly,  shy  of  strangers  ;  but  placed  at 
rest  on  that  point,  they  are,  like  most  lovers  of  horses,  hospit- 
able, kind-hearted,  and  sporting.  While  we  lived  a  little  off 
the  station  end  of  High  Street,  we  saw  a  great  deal  of  Mr 
Townsend,  the  horse  painter.  I  believe  he  was  the  only  man 
in  the  whole  place  who  cared  nothing  for  racing  and,  if 
possible,  still  less  for  betting.  A  pretty  bit  of  colour  on  field 
or  foliage,  or  a  graceful  attitude  assumed  by  a  colt  or  filly, 
would  have  been  prized  by  him  more  than  the  (  straightest 
tip '  which  Mat  Dawson  or  poor  Fred.  Archer  could  have 
given  him.  Nature  was  the  book  he  loved  and  studied.  He 
liked  above  all  things  to  paint  mares  and  foals  amid  green 
fields  and  leafy  hedgerows.  As  regards  colour,  he  was 
seldom  at  fault  ;  for  he  put  down  on  canvas  only  the  tints  he 
saw  in  front  of  him.  He  was  not  very  careful  about  the 
actual  drawing,  as  long  as  the  '  feeling '  was  all  right.  As 
regards  that,  we  had  many  a  friendly  dispute.  Primed  with 
facts  proved  by  my  constant  companion,  the  six-foot  tape 
measure,  I  criticised  his  faults  of  proportion  with  the  self- 
sufficient  brutality  of  a  recent  convert  ;  while  he  retorted  that 
I  was  mechanical  in  my  ideas  and  had  no  soul  for  art.  The 
influence  of  truth  was  so  strong  on  him,  that  the  moment  he 
saw  there  was  anything  wrong  in  a  painting  of  his,  he  took  it 
out  and  began  the  work  over  again.  I  never  knew  anyone 
more  devoted  to  art  for  its  own  sake,  and  consequently, 
he  had  not,  respecting  it,  a  trace  of  rivalry  with,  or 
jealousy  of,  his  brother  '  brushes.'  I  remember  one  day,  he 
rushed  into  our  house  in  a  great  state  of  excitement,  seized 


Mr  J.  H.  Oswald  Brown.  95 

hold  of  my  arm,  and  said,  '  Come  along  with  me  quickly  ; 
for  I  want  to  show  you  a  man  who  can  really  paint  horses.' 
I  must  say  that  this  remark  interested  me  immensely,  and  I 
started  off  in  hot  haste  with  him  to  seek  the  paragon. 

My  guide  gave  me  a  lead  across  The  Severals  into  one 
of  Ryan's  paddocks  in  which  a  quiet,  pleasant-looking  young 
artist  was  painting  the  portrait  of  a  horse  that  stood  in 
front  of  him.  At  a  glance  I  saw  that  Townsend  was  right, 
and  that  the  stranger  could  paint  a  horse.  Seeing  us  stand- 
ing by,  the  artist  ceased  his  labours  for  a  moment  to  speak 
to  us.  He  has  singularly  charming  manners  and  not  a 
particle  of  *  side.'  His  only  fault  seemed  to  be  distrust  in 
his  own  manifestly  great  powers.  The  sitting  or,  rather, 
standing  was  soon  over,  Mr  Townsend  went  away  to  keep 
an  appointment,  and  the  stranger,  whose  name  I  learnt  was 
Mr  J.  H.  Oswald  Brown,  strolled  over  to  the  Rutland  Arms 
with  me  to  have  a  drink,  a  smoke  and  a  talk.  The  con- 
versation naturally  turned  on  horses,  and  as  he  listened  with 
flattering  attention  to  what  I  said,  I  thought  him  delightful. 
I  saw  a  great  deal  of  him  while  I  remained  in  England, 
and  I  lectured  him  incessantly  on  '  make  and  shape.' 
He  had  a  comfortable  property,  kept  his  hunters,  and  was 
wholly  devoted  to  painting  and  horses.  Having  diligently 
studied  in  the  best  schools  of  France  and  Holland,  he  was 
a  thorough  master  of  the  technique  of  his  art.  He  delighted 
me  beyond  measure  by  saying  that  in  me  he  had  at  last 
found  someone  who  could  supply  him  with  the  special 
knowledge  about  horses,  in  the  search  of  which  he  had 
been  fruitlessly  engaged  for  a  long  time.  Failing  to  con- 
vince him  that  the  opinion  he  had  formed  of  me  was  far 
too  flattering,  I  exerted  every  effort  in  my  power  to  make 
myself  worthy  of  it.  Although  I  was  far  from  successful 
in  this  endeavour,  I  believe  that  I  was  of  some  small  help 
to  him,  and  I  had  the  extreme  good  fortune  to  secure  his 
services  for  illustrating  my  books.  The  success  they  have 
obtained  was  to  a  great  measure  due  to  his  admirable  draw- 


96  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

ings.  I  can  never  be  sufficiently  grateful  to  him  for  the 
untiring  patience  and  sympathetic  interest  with  which  he 
worked  for  me.  The  purified  ghost  of  the  lost  book  on  the 
make  and  shape  of  horses  now  began  to  haunt  my  mind. 
I  made  a  desperate  effort  to  re-write  it  on  greatly  improved 
lines,  and  Mr  Brown  illustrated  many  of  my  ideas  ;  but  all 
in  vain.  I  felt  that  I  was  lacking  in  knowledge  and  experi- 
ence, and  accordingly  tore  up  the  manuscript  at  which  I  had 
toiled  ;  hoping  that  some  day  the  true  inspiration  would  come 
with  more  matured  knowledge. 

Mr  Allen  Sealy  was  another  capable  artist  whom  I  met 
at  Newmarket,  when,  if  I  remember  rightly,  he  was  taking 
the  portraits  of  a  couple  of  horses  which  were  in  Mr  Alf. 
Sadler's  stable.  While  in  London  during  the  early  part  of 
1885,  I  was  asked  by  Mr  Sealy  one  day  to  give  my  opinion 
on  a  horse  picture  of  his,  which  was  in  the  gallery  of  Mr 
Mendoza.  While  there,  Mr  Sam  Waller  came  in  and  Mr 
Sealy  introduced  me  to  him.  He,  I  need  hardly  say,  is 
the  famous  painter  of  whose  works,  like  those  of  '  'Twixt 
Love  and  Duty/  '  The  Day  of  Reckoning/  and  many  others, 
are  known  and  liked  by  everyone.  I,  of  course,  began 
to  talk  horse,  which  proved  a  very  attractive  subject  to 
Mr  Waller,  whose  paintings  almost  always  contain  one  or 
more  of  these  animals.  As  we  were  about  to  say  '  good- 
bye '  and  part,  he  asked  me  why  I  did  not  teach  artists  the 
principles  of  equine  conformation.  I  replied  that  nothing 
would  please  me  better,  if  I  had  the  chance.  He  said  that  he 
knew  several  animal  painters  who  would  be  glad  to  join  a 
class,  if  I  would  lecture  to  them  ;  and  that  he  would  get 
up  the  class,  if  I  liked.  I  warmly  and  gratefully  thanked 
him  for  his  kindness,  and,  a  few  days  afterwards,  commenced 
my  lectures  at  his  house  in  Circus  Road.  I  was  flattered 
and  delighted  to  have  such  pupils  as  Mr  Briton  Riviere — 
who  was  so  pleased  with  my  teaching  that  he  brought  his 
son— Mr  Waller,  Mr  John  Charlton  (of  The  Graphic),  Mr 
Haywood  Hardy,  Mr  Sealy  and  others,  all  of  whom  took 


Mr  J.  H.  Oswald  Brown.  97 

a  warm  interest  in  what  I  told  them  about  the  *  shape  and 
make'  of  horses.  In  these  lectures  I  was  greatly  helped 
by  having  a  few  horse  photographs.  The  fact  which  I  now 
recognised,  that  the  photographs  of  horses  carried  far  more 
weight  than  drawings,  however  carefully  and  well  they  might 
be  done,  determined  me  to  utilise,  as  much  as  possible,  '  the 
black  art '  for  the  portraits  of  all  the  representative  animals 
I  required  in  my  proposed  book.  I  may  mention  that  when 
the  book  at  last  appeared,  eight  years  later,  it  contained  77 
photographs  and  205  illustrations,  chiefly  by  Mr  Brown. 
Although  the  London  trade  were  unanimous  in  declaring 
that  it  was  the  most  beautifully  illustrated  horse  bdok  ever 
brought  out,  its  publication  was  to  me,  as  sad  a  happiness 
as  the  birth  of  a  posthumous  son  would  be  to  a  widowed 
mother ;  for  just  before  it  went  to  press,  my  friend  and 
fellow-worker,  Mr  Oswald  Brown,  died  after  a  short  illness. 


MR  J.    H.   OSWALD    BROWN. 
G 


Photo,  by  M.  H.  Hayes. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Horsebreaking — 'Professor'  Sample  and  his  System — Quackery  in  Horse- 
taming—'  Professor '  Galvayne — Sample's  Show  in  London — Originality 
in  Horse  Taming — Frank  and  Joe. 

IN  1885,  I  took  a  new  and  unexpected  departure  in  my 
horse  studies.  As  I  have  already  said,  I  used  to  rely, 
for  the  breaking-in  of  horses,  solely  on  the  usual  English 
and  Irish  method  of  quiet  riding  and  patient  handling,  until 
I  met  Mr  Moore,  from  whom  I  learned  the  virtues  of  the 
long  reins  and  standing  martingale.  I  knew  Rarey's  method 
of  horse  taming ;  but  did  not  understand  the  correct  prin- 
ciples of  its  application.  My  Newmarket  experience  did  not 
teach  me  much ;  for  English  trainers  trouble  themselves 
little  about  giving  racehorses  good  mouths  and  manners. 
The  breaking-in  of  their  yearlings  is  a  very  simple  matter. 
Having  been  more  or  less  handled  from  the  time  they  were 
foaled,  the  efforts  of  these  youngsters  to  resist  control,  when 
they  happen  to  rebel,  are  feeble,  compared,  for  instance,  to 

98 


Horse- Breaking.  99 

the  maddening  struggles  for  liberty  made  by  a  four  or  five 
year  old  who,  for  the  first  time  in  its  life,  has  felt  the  restrain- 
ing hand  of  man  on  it.  Lunging  the  animal  and  tying  it 
up,  so  as  to  make  it  champ  the  mouthing  bit,  are  all  that 
is  generally  done  before  putting  up  a  stable  lad,  who,  as  a 
rule,  hangs  on  to  the  head  of  the  colt  or  filly,  without  at- 
tempting in  any  way  to  teach  it  to  go  in  an  easy  and  well- 
balanced  style.  Although  ignorant  of  the  true  principles 
of  breaking,  I  knew  as  much  as  my  neighbours,  and  perhaps 
felt  my  deficiencies  in  this  respect  more  keenly  than  they 
did.  Lunging  in  the  English  way  I  always  abominated  ; 
for  I  knew  that  by  throwing  too  much  weight  on  the  horse's 
forehand,  it  was  a  fruitful  cause  of  injury  to  back  tendons 
and  supensory  ligaments,  and  by  making  his  hind  feet  move 
in  a  larger  circle  than  his  fore  feet  describe,  it  forces  him 
to  go  in  an  awkward  manner.  I  may  here  remark  that  if 
an  attempt  be  made  to  remedy  these  defects,  as  is  done  in 
Continental  maneges,  by  side  reins,  the  outward  one  of  the 
two  will  have  to  be  shortened  more  than  the  inward  one, 
and  the  animal  will  have  his  head  turned  to  the  right  when 
he  is  being  circled  to  the  left,  and  vice  versa.  This,  I  need 
hardly  say,  is  wrong ;  for  a  horse  should  of  course  have 
his  head  in  the  direction  he  is  proceeding.  Up  to  this  time 
I  knew  nothing  of  the  further  development — which  I  have 
since  then  worked  out  by  myself— of  long  rein  work  in  teach- 
ing a  horse  to  circle,  turn,  rein  back  and  passage  in  a  well- 
balanced  manner.  Such  improvements  I  acquired  only  after 
much  practice  in  the  breaking  ring  and  after  a  careful  study 
of  high  school  riding.  As  I  could  get  no  reasoned-out  ex- 
planation of  the  principles  involved  in  tying  up  a  horse  with 
a  mouthing  bit,  for  the  object  of  giving  him  a  good  mouth, 
I  would  not  employ  it ;  as  I  have  always  been  averse  from 
trying  experiments  in  the  dark.  Thanks  to  Mr  Moore,  I 
had  a  fair  idea  of  the  best  way  to  teach  a  horse  to  jump, 
before  putting  a  rider  up.  From  the  foregoing  observations, 
my  readers  will  see  that  my  weak  points  in  breaking,  at  the 


ioo  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

time  of  which  I  am  writing,  were  ignorance  of  school  work  and 
of  reducing  unruly  horses  to  obedience.  I  had  seen  so  many 
disobedient  horses  confirmed  in  their  vices  by  the  punitive 
application  of  whip  and  spur,  that  I  had  long  distrusted 
the  efficacy  of  such  means  of  coercion  ;  but  I  knew  none 
better.  Being  ignorant,  I  was  inclined  to  accept  the  prin- 
ciple that  if  a  horse  'played  up,'  the  rider  or  driver  was 
bound,  in  justice  to  himself,  to  'take  the  nonsense  out  of 
him  ' — if  he  could — by  punishment.  If  the  rebel's  temper 
got  spoiled  during  the  operation,  it  was — in  my  opinion 
and  in  that  of  all  my  horsey  friends — his  fault,  and  not 
that  of  his  would-be  instructor.  Everyone  who  has  had 
experience  of  racing,  can  recall  to  mind  numerous  instances 
of  jockeys,  from  the  late  Fred.  Archer  downwards,  flogging 
and  spurring  a  horse  unmercifully,  solely  on  account  of  the 
animal  having  refused  to  obey  the  behests  of  its  rider;  the 
usual  consequence  being  that  such  punishment  will  have  an 
injurious  effect  on  the  horse's  disposition  for  the  remainder 
of  its  life.  Such  conduct  on  the  part  of  a  jockey  is  wholly 
inexcusable;  for  he  is  supposed  to  be  paid  for  riding  the 
horse  in  the  best  possible  manner  to  win ;  but  not  for  venting 
upon  it  any  personal  annoyance  it  may  cause  him.  The 
tolerance  shown  to  these  disgraceful  exhibitions  of  temper 
on  the  part  of  many  jockeys,  is  the  best  possible  proof 
that  our  jockeys,  trainers  and  owners,  know  extremely  little 
about  the  true  principles  of  horse  control. 

About  this  time  there  came  to  England  a  *  Professor ' 
Sample,  who  advertised  himself  as  '  the  great  American 
Horse  Tamer,'  and  who,  like  Rarey,  claimed  to  possess  a 
system  by  which  he  could  cure,  and  teach  others  to  cure, 
all  kinds  of  equine  faults  and  vices.  Here,  at  last,  was  a 
man  who  I  hoped  would  be  able  to  show  me  how  to  '  take 
the  nonsense  '  out  of  horses  without  spoiling  their  temper, 
and  I  accordingly  embraced  the  earliest  opportunity  of  see- 
ing him,  which  was  at  Hengler's  Circus,  Argyle  Street, 
Oxford  Street,  where  he  gave  his  first  lecture.  He  was 


Professor  Sample.  101 

an  American  of  middle  height  and  of  well-nourished  ap- 
pearance. His  discourse  consisted  of  a  strange  medley  of 
childish  remarks  about  the  physiology  of  the  horse,  droll 
stories,  and  singularly  acute  observations  on  *  the  noble 
animal.'  Though  not  well  educated,  he  was  full  of  humour, 
self-reliant,  and  had  the  gift  of  holding  the  attention  of  his 
audience.  I  was  charmed  With  his  originality,  and  felt  that 
I  was  in  the  presence  of  a  man  who  had  something  new  to 
tell  about  my  favourite  study.  After  he  had  done  speaking, 
a  Mr  Sydney  Galvayne  got  up  and  began  to  hold  forth  in 
a  style  which  made  me  feel  sick ;  for  he  was  very  common- 
place. He  acknowledged  that  he  had  learned  '  the  system ' 
from  Sample  in  Australia,  and  told  wonderful  stories  about 
his  own  horse-taming  feats  and  powers.  The  two  '  professors ' 
did  absolutely  nothing  except  talk,  and  inform  their  audience 
that  Professor  Sample  would  impart  '  the  system '  at  five 
guineas  a  head.  This,  as  might  have  been  expected,  did 
not  'draw'  the  London  public.  Contrary  to  the  course 
mapped  out  for  Rarey  by  his  clever  manager,  Goodenough, 
Sample  produced  no  reformed  Cruiser,  and  yet  he  was  incom- 
parably superior  to  his  predecessor  in  the  line  they  both  took 
up.  The  show  had  been  widely  advertised.  The  Professor's 
pleasant-looking  portrait  was  hung  out  on  both  sides  of 
nearly  every  omnibus  in  London,  and  yet  the  essential 
element  of  success,  namely,  the  taming  of  a  well-known 
vicious  horse  was  neglected.  Sample,  with  the  true  instinct 
of  a  born  showman,  gave  a  highly  creditable  taming  per- 
formance with  a  quiet  horse  or  two,  and  he  showed  such 
a  number  of  smart  breaking  dodges  to  the  members  of  his 
class,  of  which  I  was  one,  that  he  saved  himself  from  being 
termed  an  impostor ;  although  he  lost  about  a  thousand 
pounds  by  the  venture.  He  stayed  at  the  Langham  Hotel ; 
wore  an  immense  diamond  shirt-stud  ;  carried  a  fifty-guinea 
watch  which  had  been  presented  to  him  by  an  appreciative 
Australian  *  class ' ;  and  fancied  himself  as  one  of  the  greatest 
men  that  had  ever  lived.  We  became  acquainted,  and  I  saw  a 


IO2  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

good  deal  of  him  at  our  house  and  at  my  club,  where  he 
loved  to  get  a  game  of  draughts,  at  which  he  was  an  extra- 
ordinary fine  player.  He  had  a  low  opinion  of  my  know- 
ledge of  horses;  because  I  am  not  rich  !  Once  or  twice  when 
he  became  too  unbearable,  for  he  would  brook  nothing  but 
blind  acceptance  of  his  views,  I  mildly  represented  that  I  was 
a  veterinary  surgeon  ;  had  written  successful  books ;  had  had 
some  experience  with  horses  ;  and  that  I  was  not  altogether 
ignorant  of  the  subject.  *  When  a  man  tries  to  make  out 
to  me,'  he  replied,  'that  he  knows  something  about  horses, 
I  ask  him  how  much  money  he  has  made  by  his  information, 
and  if,  like  you,  he  happens  to  be  hard  up,  I  calculate  that 
he  has  as  little  knowledge  as  he  has  cash.'  This  remark 
made  me  laugh  ;  for,  though  uncomplimentary,  it  contained 
an  evident  truth  which  I  had  been  silly  enough  to  have 
ignored  all  my  life.  He  had  seen  an  immense  amount  of 
'  show '  life,  and  I  was  never  tired  of  listening  to  the  account 
of  his  varied  experiences  ;  for  it  contained  many  shrewd  and 
sound  practical  observations  about  horses  and  their  training. 
Sample  was  not  merely  a  horse  tamer ;  but  was  also  marvel- 
lously clever  in  teaching  horses  all  kinds  of  tricks,  particularly 
for  circus  work.  His  practical  experience  was  limited 
entirely  to  harness  work,  and  he  had  no  idea  of  giving  a 
horse  what  a  hunting  man  would  call  a  good  mouth.  About 
teaching  a  horse  to  jump  in  hunting  or  chasing  style,  he 
knew  nothing.  Almost  everything  he  knew,  I  was  ignor- 
ant of,  and  vice  versa.  As  Sample  would  not  acknowledge 
even  to  himself,  that  anyone  could  possibly  know  anything 
about  horses  which  he  did  not,  and  as  I  am  nothing,  if  not 
a  learner,  our  talk  and  discussions  proved  far  more  beneficial 
to  me,  than  they  were  to  him. 

His  system,  I  may  explain,  was  simple  in  the  extreme, 
and  could  be  fully  explained  in  one  lesson.  One  application 
of  it  would,  so  he  said,  cure  all  equine  faults  and  vices ;  and 
its  effects,  so  he  also  insisted,  were  permanent.  To  render 
the  payer  of  the  five  guineas  proof  against  forgetting  his  one 


The  Head  and  Tail  Method.  103 

lesson,  and  to  enable  him,  so  Sample  declared,  to  tell  a 
horse's  age  with  accuracy  up  to  the  age  of  thirty  years, 
supposing  the  animal  lived  so  long,  the  pupil  was  presented 
with  a  book,  in  which  a  short  description  of  the  system  was 
given.  All  that  the  writer  of  the  five-pound-five  cheque 
further  required  was  belief. 

Although,  as  my  readers  may  guess,  there  was  some 
nonsense  mixed  up  in  this  '  system,'  it  had  many  good  points. 
It  was  particularly  useful  to  me  ;  because  it  supplied  me 
with  one  of  the  things  which  I  most  wanted,  namely,  know- 
ledge of  methods  to  make,  in  a  very  short  time,  a  (  difficult ' 
horse  quiet  and  obedient.  I  had,  however,  no  belief  in  a 
rule-of-thumb  system.  All  I  wanted  was  knowledge,  and  as 
much  of  it  as  I  could  possibly  acquire. 

The  practical  working  of  Sample's  system  was  as  follows  : — 
A  cord  was  attached  to  the  tail  of  the  patient  and  fixed  to 
the  headstall  (which  had  been  previously  put  on  the  animal), 
at  such  a  length  that  the  only  movement  of  which  the  horse 
was  then  capable,  was  that  of  following  its  tail  in  a  circle. 
It  required  practice  to  regulate  the  length  of  this  cord,  so  as 
to  obtain  the  proper  amount  of  restraint.  When  thus  tied 
up,  the  animal  was  '  gentled '  over  with  a  long  pole,  while,  in 
the  event  of  its  being  nervous,  it  was  induced  to  spin  round 
and  round,  until  it  perceived  that  it  was  easier  to  allow  itself 
to  be  touched  all  over,  than  to  perform  an  involuntary  waltz. 
Cracking  a  whip  close  to  and  over  it,  rattling  tin  cans  about 
it,  and  applying  other  kinds  of  terrifying  appliances,  had  the 
effect  of  rendering  it  quiet  if  it  had  been  previously  wild. 
This,  like  Rarey's  plan  of  throwing  a  horse  down,  was 
admirable  with  savage  or  excitable  horses;  for  it  impressed 
on  the  former  their  powerlessness  to  do  wrong,  and,  on  the 
latter,  the  important  fact  that  it  was  foolish  for  them  to  '  play 
up'  without  being  hurt.  An  appliance  called  'the  Indian 
war  bridle,'  which  had  the  same  effect  as  a  severe  twitch,  also 
belonged  to  the  system,  as  a  preparatory  means  of  control. 
The  third  factor  was  driving  the  horse  with  a  pair  of  long 


IO4  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

reins,  which  the  driver,  according  to  Professor  Sample,  should 
violently  jerk  when  he  wanted  to  stop  or  turn  the  horse.  He 
claimed  that  these  three  methods  had  been  invented  by  him. 
He  added  a  fourth,  about  which  he  made  no  claim  to 
originality.  It  consisted  of  a  very  easy  manner  of  throwing 
a  horse  by  tying  up  one  foreleg,  and  drawing  his  head 
round  to  the  other  side.  He  also  showed  the  way  horses  are 
taught,  in  circuses,  to  come  up  to  and  follow  one  ;  and  a 
device  to  cure  horses  of  the  habit  of  hanging  on  the  rope  or 
chain  which  secures  them  to  their  manger  in  a  stall.  His 
method,  which  was  not  original,  of  telling  a  horse's  age  up 
to  thirty  years,  was  based  on  the  alteration  of  shape  which 
occurs  in  the  upper  corner  incisor  tooth  (on  either  side)  from 
five  years  old  and  upwards.  This,  taken  in  conjunction 
with  other  dental  indications  not  given  by  Sample,  is  useful 
up  to,  say,  eight  years  of  age.  After  that,  it  is  much  inferior 
to  a  method  based  on  the  conclusions  drawn,  on  the  same 
subject,  by  MM.  Goubaux  and  Barrier,  in  L'Exterieur  de 
ChevaL  For  ages  under  five  years,  Sample  adopted  the 
usual  routine  of  deciding  by  the  milk  teeth  and  *  marks.'  Not 
alone  did  he  present  to  English  horse  lovers  a  large  mass 
of  useful  knowledge  which  was  absolutely  new  to  them,  but 
he  worked  his  methods — even  when  one  could  not  altogether 
agree  with  them — in  such  a  capable  manner,  that  it  was 
worth  a  journey  of  a  hundred  miles  to  see  him  handle  a  quiet 
animal ;  to  say  nothing  of  vicious  ones. 

An  admirable  principle,  to  which  Sample  attached  great 
importance  in  the  breaking-in  of  a  young  horse,  and  which 
is  directly  opposed  to  the  ideas  of  the  majority  of  horse- 
owners  in  England,  was  that  of  forcing  the  pupil  to  'stand'  all 
kinds  of  terrifying  sights  and  sounds,  while  proving  to  him 
that  they  did  not  hurt  him.  With  quaint  stories,  Sample 
used  to  illustrate  the  folly  of  old-fashioned  breakers  who 
do  everything  in  their  power  to  prevent  a  youngster  getting 
frightened  ;  the  result  being  that  after  he  has  been  thus 
'  carefully  '  broken,  he  will  be  ready  to  '  play  up '  if  anything 


Horse  Tamers.  105 

untoward  occurs.  Considering  the  cost  of  labour,  and  the 
high  price  of  hay  and  oats,  it  seems  preposterous  to  spend 
months  in  gradually  making  a  young  horse  steady,  when  the 
operation  can  be  performed,  according  to  Sample's  principle, 
in  a  few  lessons  much  more  effectively,  and  without  any  risk 
of  imparting  to  the  animal  the  undesirable  knowledge  of  his 
own  power. 

The  chief  faults  of  his  'system/  like  those  of  all  other 
horse  tamers,  were  its  supposed  universal  applicability  and 
the  assumed  permanency  of  its  effects.  With  the  light  of 
nine  years'  copious  experience,  I  may  explain  that  we 
cannot  any  more  cure  all  forms  of  vice  in  the  horse  by  one 
method,  than  a  doctor  can  heal  all  his  patients  by  the  same 
drug.  Rarey  was  careful  to  select  only  one  type  of  vicious 
horse,  namely,  the  savage,  and  having  demonstrated  his 
power  to  reduce  such  animals  to  submission,  he  wrongly 
argued,  or  lead  his  public  to  argue,  that  because  the  most 
violent  form  of  vice  could  be  cured  by  his  system,  that  milder 
forms  were  equally  amenable  to  its  application.  As  well 
might  be  advanced  the  preposterous  assertion  that  because 
ipecacuanha  was  valuable  in  the  treatment  of  dysentery,  it 
would  cure  a  broken  leg.  All  these  *  professors,'  Rarey, 
Sample,  Rockwell,  Hurlbert,  Magner,  Gleeson,  Pratt  and 
others,  were  patent  medicine  men  who  prided  themselves  on 
the  exclusive  possession  of  some  secret  remedy,  which,  how- 
ever excellent  it  might  be  in  some  cases,  could  not  possibly 
be  effective  in  all.  A  doctor,  I  may  point  out,  does  not 
rest  his  fame  on  the  fact  of  his  having  invented  or  discovered 
any  particular  medicine,  but  endeavours  to  attain  success  by 
the  intelligent  application  of  the  agents  he  has  at  hand ;  and 
herein  differs  from  the  quack  and  the  so-called  horse  tamer. 
The  claim  made  for  permanency  in  the  effects  of  any 
*  system '  is  manifestly  absurd.  All  that  we  can  do  in  the 
education  of  man  or  beast  is  to  produce  on  the  creature's 
mind  an  effect  which  may  or  may  not  be  lasting.  Horse 
tamers  ignore,  either  ignorantly  or  purposely,  the  great  truth 


io6  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

that  repetition  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  means  of  rendering 
an  effect  on  the  mind  permanent.  They,  as  a  rule,  insist  that 
the  effect  of  the  application  of  their  system  is  so  wonderful, 
that  it  requires  no  repetition  !  And  yet,  with  all  the  humbug 
which  is  mixed  up  in  horse  taming,  lovers  of  horses  in  Eng- 
land owe  a  deep  debt  of  gratitude  to  America,  for  having  sent 
us  these  *  professors,'  who,  by  teaching  us  ready  and  effective 
methods  of  horse-control,  showed  us  how  to  take  the  first  step 
in  reducing  '  difficult '  animals  to  obedience.  Having  effected 
our  purpose  in  the  first  lesson,  we  are  certain  to  find  our  pupil 
more  amenable  to  reason  in  the  second,  and  so  on  ;  until,  by 
repetition,  the  habit  of  obedience  has  been  more  or  less  estab- 
lished. Without  the  power  of  taking  this  first  step,  the  desired 
result  would  often  be  unattainable. 

The  head  and  tail  plan  has  but  little  good  effect  on  stub- 
born or  sulky  horses,  which  are  consequently  to  be  avoided 
for  '  show '  purposes.  The  plan  of  jerking  the  reins,  so  as 
to  make  the  pupil  obey  the  pressure  of  the  mouthpiece,  ap- 
peared utterly  wrong  to  me  as  a  riding  man ;  for  I  knew  from 
experience  that  if  a  horse  will  not  go  up  to  his  bridle  on 
account  of  being  afraid  of  getting  a  *  job '  in  the  mouth,  he 
will  prove  an  unpleasant  '  conveyance '  in  saddle,  and  as  well 
as  in  harness.  I  need  hardly  say  that  horseman  in  England 
and  the  Continent  like  horses  to  '  bend '  to  the  rein.  An 
animal,  when  receiving  its  mouthing  lesson,  according  to 
Sample's  method,  is  directly  stimulated  to  acquire  the  per- 
nicious habit  of  chucking  up  its  head,  so  as  to  transfer  the 
painful  pressure  of  the  mouthpiece  off  the  bars,  and  on  to 
the  corners  of  the  mouth.  I  tried  as  far  as  I  could  to  impress 
on  him  that  granting  I  am  utterly  wrong  in  my  theories  of 
breaking,  the  fact  remained  that  English  and  Irish  horsemen 
detested  the  practice  of  jerking  the  reins,  and  that  he  would 
not  gain  their  countenance  unless  he  modified,  in  this  respect, 
his  method  of  taming.  Not  being  willing  to  argue,  he  got 
excessively  angry  and  indulged  in  his  usual  rodomontade 
about  the  money  he  had  made  at  horse  taming,  the  years  he 


Horse  Taming.  107 

had  spent  at  it,  the  enormous  fame  he  had  acquired,  the 
stupidity  and  ignorance  about  horses  displayed  by  English- 
men, and  his  own  transcendent  knowledge.  We  may  see 
from  the  foregoing  remarks  that  Sample,  like  Rarey,  aimed 
only  at  rendering  horses  quiet — in  other  words  taming  them 
— and  made  no  attempt  at  forming  their  paces,  rendering 
them  obedient  to  the  *  aids/  and  teaching  them  to  jump.  I 
need  hardly  point  out  that  this  horse  taming  was  only  a 
preliminary  step,  though  a  very  useful  one,  in  the  breaking-in 
of  a  horse.  Knowledge  of  any  such  system  of  horse  taming 
was  of  value  only  to  capable  horsemen,  who,  after  they  had 
made  their  animal  amenable  to  discipline,  would  be  able  to 
complete  its  education. 

Later  on  I  learnt  the  circumstances  which  gave  rise  to 
the  fiasco  at  Hengler's,  and  which  were  as  follows  :  After 
travelling  for  several  years  in  the  horse  taming  line 
through  America,  his  native  country,  Sample  went  to 
Australia  to  teach  his  system.  He  had  great  success  in 
those  colonies ;  as  he  was  undeniably  clever,  and  his 
methods  were  new,  and  well  adapted  to  the  rough 
and  ready  style  of  breaking  which  is  employed  in  the 
Antipodes.  While  he  was  making  '  big '  money  there, 
someone  suggested  to  him  that  he  should  go  to  England, 
and  told  him  that  instead  of  making  a  hundred  or  two  a 
week  in  Australia,  he  could  amass  countless  thousands 
in  England  and  especially  in  London,  where,  the  tempter 
said,  nobody  talked  or  dreamed  of  anything  except  horses, 
and  where  he  would  be  hailed  as  the  great  American  bene- 
factor of  humanity.  Yankee  shrewdness  not  being  proof 
against  flattery,  Sample  yielded  to  the  glamour  of  the  idea, 
and  departed  to  London  to  gather  the  harvest  of  gold  and 
fame  which  he  thought  was  awaiting  his  arrival.  He  found 
the  great  city  a  more  difficult  place  to  attack  than  he  had 
expected  ;  especially  as  the  ways  and  views  of  its  inhabitants 
were  new  to  him.  Instead  of  finding  himself,  like  in  the 
Colonies,  in  the  midst  of  men  who  bred,  owned,  or  at  least 


loS  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

drove  or  rode  horses,  he  encountered  worthy  citizens  who 
loved  horses  only  theoretically.  News  also  came  to  him  that 
he  was  not  the  first  in  the  field  ;  but  that  a  Mr  Osborn,  who 
had  learnt  the  system  while  in  Australia  from  him,  had 
preceded  his  instructor  by  about  six  months,  and  was,  at  the 
time  of  Sample's  arrival  in  London,  busily  engaged  teaching 
in  Yorkshire,  the  patent  system  on  his  own  account.  I  may 
explain  that  it  was  Sample's  custom  to  get  each  of  his  pupils 
to  sign  a  paper  saying  that  he  would  not  disclose  the  secrets 
of  the  system.  Under  threat,  so  Sample  tells  me,  of '  showing 
up'  Mr  Osborn  for  this  breach  of  faith,  Sample  made  Pro- 
fessor Galvayne,  as  Osborn  now  called  himself,  come  to 
London  and  help  him  in  his  first  performances;  the  chief  part 
allotted  to  him  being  the  supply  of  ferocious  horses.  Whether 
Galvayne  was  unable  to  procure  these  equine  demons,  or 
whether  he  did  not  see  the  force  of  helping  a  former  master 
and  present  rival,  I  cannot  say.  Anyhow,  the  wild  horses 
were  not  produced,  and  the  affair,  as  I  have  already  described, 
turned  out  a  terrible  *  frost.' 

Anxious  to  see  as  much  as  I  possibly  could  of  this  new 
style  of  horse  taming  I  accepted  Mr  Galvayne's  invitation  to 
attend  a  seance  which  he  was  going  to  hold  at  a  riding-school 
in  Islington.  He  asked  me  to  say  nothing  about  the  matter 
to  Sample.  The  performance  came  off,  and  was  conducted 
in  a  precisely  similar  manner  to  those  given  by  Sample  ; 
except  that,  in  this  instance,  Galvayne  claimed  the  head  and 
tail  trick,  Indian  war  bridle,  long  rein  driving,  the  determina- 
tion of  the  age  of  the  horse  up  to  thirty  years  of  age,  and 
everything  else  that  Sample  had  shown  to  his  class,  as  inven- 
tions of  his  own  original  genius  ;  and  yet,  about  ten  days 
before  that,  I  heard  him  declare  in  Hengler's  circus  that  he 
had  learned  them  from  Sample  ! 

Mention  of  Galvayne's  claim  reminds  me  to  make  a  few 
remarks  on  the  originality  of  horse  taming  systems.  Mr  R. 
Jennings  in  his  Horse  Training  Made  Easy,  which  was 
published  in  America  in  1866,  describes  the  head  and  tail 


Originality  of  Horse  Taming  Methods.          109 

method,  in  a  manner  which  leads  me  to  believe  that  it  was 
ancient  nearly  thirty  years  ago.  Referring  to  the  Indian  war 
bridle,  he  says :  'It  is  mentioned  in  The  Veterinarian  of 
London  in  1828  as  used  by  the  North  American  Indians  in 
subduing  their  horses  ;  hence  it  is  known  as  the  Indian  war 
bridle.'  The  Irish  breaker  Fallon  used  the  long  reins  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  Galvayne  evidently  did  not  know  these 
facts,  or  he  thought  it  advisable  to  conceal  them.  Though  I 
have  not  the  books  by  me  to  give  chapter  and  verse,  I  believe 
that  Rockwell,  Magner,  Dudley,  Hurlbert,  and  other  tamers 
who  performed  prior  to  the  appearance  of  Jenning's  book, 
were  acquainted  with  all  the  foregoing  methods,  which  in  1885 
constituted  Sample's  secret  system.  As  to  Rarey,  we  have 
historical  proof  that  his  '  original '  system  was  practised  long 
before  the  Christian  era.  The  fact  of  my  doubting  the  just- 
ness of  Sample's  claim  to  originality,  in  no  way  lessens  the 
admiration  with  which  I  have  always  regarded  the  manner  in 
which  he  handles  horses  and  reduces  unruly  animals  to 
obedience.  I  might  as  well — if  I  may  be  allowed  to  employ 
the  same  simile  twice — try  to  depreciate  the  merits  of  an  able 
and  successful  doctor,  because  he  had  not  invented  or  dis- 
covered any  of  the  surgical  instruments  or  medicines  he  is 
accustomed  to  employ.  A  doctor  or  breaker  is  not  clever, 
because  he  has  invented  remedial  agents,  but  because  he  is 
able  to  intelligently  apply  those  with  which  he  is  acquainted. 

Besides  Galvayne  alias  Osborn,  who  soon  left  him, 
Sample's  personnel  consisted  of  a  clerk  who  called  himself 
Franklin,  but  whose  real  name  was  Sexton,  and  who,  later 
on,  endeavoured  to  burst  on  the  world  as  '  Professor  Leon  the 
celebrated  Mexican  Horse  Tamer ; '  Frank,  an  Australian 
rough  rider  ;  and  Joe,  who  had  been  a  sailor.  Sexton,  who 
is  a  brother-in-law  of  Galvayne,  acted,  I  believe,  as  his 
advance  agent  while  Osborn  was  running  his  show  in  the 
north  of  England  before  Sample's  arrival  in  this  country.  It 
appears  that  during  that  time  Franklin  learned  '  the  system  ' 
from  Galvayne.  Subsequently  Osborn  and  Leon  *  fell  out,' 


1 1  o  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

and  parted.  I  must  do  Sexton  the  justice  of  saying  that  he 
always  gave  the  credit  of  his  instructions  to  Sample,  and  not 
to  Osborn.  Frank,  after  a  short  time,  quitted  Sample's 
service,  and  went  horse  taming  on  his  own  account.  Joe, 
with  the  proverbial  honesty  of  a  seafaring  man,  stuck  to  the 
ship,  and  did  not  leave  her  until  the  gallant  craft  got  blown 
up  by  an  infernal  machine,  as  I  shall  relate  further  on. 
When  his  old  skipper  launched  another  argosy,  which  was 
also  destroyed,  the  faithful  Joe  again  found  his  way  on  board, 
ready  to  give  a  helping  hand.  Joe  is  a  strong,  sturdy  fellow 
of  about  middle  height.  He  has  a  pleasant,  English-looking 
face,  and  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  good  temper,  which 
must,  at  times,  have  been  sorely  tried  by  his  dictatorial 
master,  who  was  as  fond  of  Joe,  as  Joe  was  of  him,  and  that 
is  saying  a  great  deal. 

After  the  London  fiasco,  Galvayne  returned  to  Yorkshire, 
or  wherever  else  he  had  been  performing,  and  Sample 
*  opened '  at  Norwich.  He  was  full  of  confidence  that  he 
would  do  well  as  soon  as  he  got  among  men  of  whose  lives 
horses  formed  a  large  part.  He  was  pleased  with  the  interest 
I  had  taken  in  his  work,  and  told  me  when  I  was  saying 
good-bye  to  him  that  he  hoped,  if  I  went  abroad  again,  I 
would  utilise  to  my  profit  all  that  I  had  learned  from  him. 


Photo,  by  H.  R.  Sherlorn   Newmarket. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Colonel  Dudley  Sampson  —  Return  to  India — Bombay — A  Free  Show — 
Poona — Colonel  Morton  and  the  I4th  Hussars — The  lyth  Lancers — 
General  Wardropp — Calcutta — Horsebreaking  in  a  Class  and  in  a  Public 
Performance — Causes  of  Success — Learning  as  I  went  on — Horse  Taming 
and  Horsebreaking — Show  at  Simla — Lord  and  Lady  Dufiferin — Lord 
Roberts  — The  Duke  of  Bedford  — Sir  George  White  — Mr  Rudyard 
Kipling  —  *  The  Guides '  —  Hyderabad  and  its  Native  Noblemen  — 
Improvements  in  Horsebreaking — Mr  Jimmy  M'Leod  and  Britomarte — 
Racing — '  The  Treasure.' 

ON  the  Derby  day  of  1885,  I  strolled  as  usual  through  the 
Epsom  Paddock  to  see  the  horses  and  to  meet  old 
friends  and  acquaintances,  who  have  a  way  of  turning  up  at 
that  famous  rendezvous,  as  unexpected  as  it  is  pleasant. 
Among  others  whom  I  saw  was  Colonel  Dudley  Sampson, 
who  was  once  a  famous  gentleman  rider  in  India,  and  who 
has  since  developed  into  a  country  gentlemen  and  a  writer  of 
Unionist  songs.  We  fell  into  a  conversation  which  naturally 

in 


1 1 2  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

turned  upon  horses.  He  told  me  that  he  was  troubled  about 
a  well-bred  four-year-old  which  he  had  unsuccessfully  tried  to 
turn  into  a  hunter.  He  had  trusted  its  reformation  to  five 
successive  breakers,  who  had  effected  nothing  beyond  pocket- 
ing their  respective  fees  of  five  guineas.  I  asked  what  the 
animal  did.  '  That's  the  worst  of  him/  replied  the  owner, 
'  he'll  do  nothing.  A  child  can  mount  him  and  remain  on 
his  back  all  day ;  but  no  power  or  stimulus  which  we  have 
hitherto  applied,  has  been  able  to  make  him  move.'  In  fact, 
the  animal  was  a  rank  jibber.  Knowing  that  it  was  young 
and  guessing  that  its  instructors  had  not  been  particularly 
able,  I  volunteered  to  attempt  its  reduction  to  obedience. 
This  I  did,  a  few  days  afterwards,  chiefly  by  means  of  the 
long  reins.  In  about  an  hour,  I  made  the  colt  so  amenable 
to  discipline  that  he  allowed  himself  to  be  ridden  all  over  the 
place  in  the  kindest  possible  manner.  He  got  another  lesson 
next  morning,  and  gave  no  further  trouble.  Some  time  after 
that  I  met  Colonel  Sampson,  who  remarked  to  me  that  had 
he  known  how  to  break-in  horses,  he  would  have  been  saved, 
during  his  old  Indian  days,  from  much  loss  and  disappoint- 
ment with  animals  which  had  proved  to  be  beyond  his  power 
of  control.  I  also  remembered  the  many  wild  and  stubborn 
ones  that  had  got  the  best  of  me  when  I  used  to  race  and 
ride  in  the  Punjab  and  North-West.  No  wonder,  then,  when 
he  suggested  that  I  ought  to  go  to  India  and  teach  the  people 
there  how  to  break-in  horses,  that  I  replied :  '  Good-bye,  I'm 
off.'  Full  of  this  idea,  I  took  my  passage  and  arrived  in 
Bombay  in  less  than  a  month. 

A  day  or  two  afterwards,  I  met  at  lunch  in  the  Bombay  Club, 
Mr  Remington,  Mr  Cecil  Gray,  Mr  Symonds,  poor  Harold 
King,  and  others  whose  grand  passion  in  life  was  horses.  Of 
course  their  first  question  was  :  What  had  brought  me  back 
to  India?  With  an  air  of  solemnity  which  was  due  to  the 
subject,  and  which  in  truth  was  not  unfitting  to  the  serious 
financial  strait  in  which  I  would  have  found  myself  had  I 
been  unsuccessful,  I  replied  that  I  had  come  to  teach  the 


Bombay.  1 1 3 

sojourners  in  India  new  methods  of  breaking  in  young  horses 
and  of  curing  of  their  vices  those  that  had  been  spoiled.  My 
friends,  all  of  whom  had  'done  themselves  well'  at  lunch 
cried  out  as  with  one  voice  :  *  That's  the  very  thing  we  want, 
to  learn.  Tell  us  how  it  is  done?'  I  replied  that  nothing 
would  give  me  greater  pleasure ;  that  the  information  which  I 
had  to  impart  was  of  immense  practical  value ;  and  that  I 
would  instruct  them  per  head  for  the  small  sum  of  £5,  which 
they  would  more  than  recoup  themselves  the  first  occasion 
on  which  they  had  an  unruly  horse  to  handle.  My  friends 
roared  with  laughter  at  what  they  termed  my  preposterous 
proposal.  In  their  opinion  I  would  be  more  than  repaid  by 
the  pleasure  I  would  receive  in  teaching  them,  and  in  reducing 
to  obedience  all  their  buckjumpers,  rearers,  runaways,  jibbers 
and  kickers.  Finding  that  my  remarks  on  '  business,'  on  the 
necessity  of  living  and  of  paying  one's  '  ex's,'  and  on  the  fact 
that  no  one  came  to  India  for  amusement,  were  in  vain,  and 
feeling  that  the  situation  was  becoming  really  serious,  I  volun- 
teered to  give  them  a  free  show,  on  condition  that  they  would 
get  me  the  two  worst  horses  they  could  find  in  Bombay. 
This  they  consented  to  with  delight ;  the  performance  came 
off  at  the  Kennels  of  the  Bombay  Fox  Hounds ;  and  the 
representatives  of  the  local  press  attended.  Of  the  two  horses 
brought,  one  was  a  vicious  kicker  in  harness  if  the  rein  hap- 
pened to  get  under  its  tail ;  the  other  was  a  determined 
jibber  like  unto  Colonel  Sampson's  colt,  but  would  violently 
buck  if  struck  or  spurred.  By  a  great  piece  of  good  luck,  my 
success  was  as  rapid  as  it  was  signal.  In  about  an  hour  and 
a-half,  the  kicker  took  no  notice  of  the  rein  when  placed  under 
its  tail ;  and  the  jibbing  mare  became  so  quiet  that  her  owner, 
an  unpractised  horseman,  was  able  to  ride  her  all  over  the 
place  without  the  slightest  trouble.  Previous  to  that,  all  the 
professional  rough-riders  who  had  tried  her,  had  failed  to 
make  her  move,  or  to  stick  on  her  when  they  proceeded  to 
punish  her.  I  may  anticipate  events  by  saying  that,  eighteen 
months  after  her  first  and  only  lesson,  I  received  a  letter  from 

H 


1 14  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

her  owner,  saying  that  she  had  continued  to  remain  perfectly 
quiet  to  ride,  even  after  she  had  been  kept  in  the  stable  for 
several  days.  I  know  nothing  about  the  subsequent  history 
of  the  kicker.  I  may  add  that  the  work  I  had  mapped  out 
for  myself  consisted  in  showing  the  members  of  my  class  how 
to  make  a  horse  obey  in  the  first  instance,  so  that  they  could 
do  likewise,  and  could  repeat  the  lesson  as  might  be  required. 
I  must  have  made  a  good  impression  at  this  free  show  ;  for 
next  morning  the  papers  were  full  of  my  praises,  and  I  got  up 
a  large  paying  class. 

From  Bombay  I  went  on  to  Poona,  where  I  arrived  just 
in   time  for  a   ball   given   by  the   Western   Indian   Club,  for 
which    I    had    received    an    invitation.      That    incomparable 
gentleman  rider,  Captain  (now  Colonel)  Locke  Elliott  being 
always  on  the  look  out  to  learn  something  new  about  horses, 
would   brook   no   delay,  so  he  went  round   (after  supper  of 
course)  with  paper   and    pencil   in  hand,  and  got   me  up   a 
class  of  almost  all  the  gentlemen  present — the  ladies  being 
placed    on   the    free    list — and   when    the    ball   was   over  we 
all  drove  or  rode  over  to   the  Horse  Artillery  riding-school 
at  Kirkee,  which  is  about  three  miles  distant.     The  Gunners 
kindly  lent  a  few  supposed  incorrigibles,  who  would  go  only 
in  the  '  off  centre '  or  *  off  lead.'     The  greatest  interest  was 
taken    in    their   subjugation,   and    neither    man    nor   woman 
would  go  to  breakfast  and  then  to  bed  until  they  had  seen 
the   buck-jumpers  quietly   ridden.      I   mention   this  incident 
to  show  what  a  keen  interest  people  in  India  take  in  horses. 
Practically,  everyone  there   owns   horses  and   uses  them   as 
one's  greatest  pleasure  in  life.     In  England  everyone  theo- 
retically loves  horses  ;    but  not  one  in  say,  500,  either  rides 
or  drives.     Even  those  who  possess  one  or  more  horses,  are 
not,  owing  to   the   masterful   ways  of  English  grooms  and 
coachmen,  brought  into  the  same  intimate  relations  with  their 
horses,  as  are  their  brethren  in  the  East.     Men  in  India  often 
have  to  teach  their  native  grooms  how  to  dress  and  feed  their 
horses  ;    their   smiths  how  to  shoe  them ;   and   their  stable- 


The  XVII.  Lancers.  115 

lads  how  to  ride.  In  this  country,  we  dare  not  take  such 
liberties.  After  Poona,  my  success  in  India  was  com- 
plete. During  a  twelve  months'  tour,  I  held  large  classes 
in  almost  every  station  from  Peshawur  to  Trichinopoly,  and 
from  Quetta  to  Mandalay,  and  taught  the  officers  of  nearly 
every  regiment  and  battery.  Naturally,  my  most  enthusiastic 
pupils  belonged  to  horse  and  field  batteries,  and  to  English 
and  Native  cavalry  regiments.  Although  there  are  some 
fine  exceptions,  which  it  would  be  invidious  to  particularise, 
infantry  officers  of  the  present  day  do  not  'go  in '  for  horses 
as  keenly  as  those  of  former  times,  who  had  more  money 
to  spend  and  less  duty  to  perform.  On  leaving  Poona,  I 
went  to  Trimulgherry  where  I  was  a  guest  of  Colonel  Morton 
and  the  officers  of  the  I4th  Hussars,  who,  with  the  other 
officers  took  a  great  interest  in  the  horsebreaking  work 
which  I  showed  them.  The  most  of  the  ten  days  which  I 
stayed  at  Trimulgherry,  was  spent  in  the  I4th  Hussar  riding- 
school,  where  we  had  in  all  the  unbroken  and  spoiled  horses 
we  could  find.  On  leaving,  Colonel  Morton  and  the  officers 
of  the  1 4th  Hussars  and  several  officers  of  the  3rd  Madras 
Cavalry  and  Hyderabad  Contingent  gave  me  a  very  flattering 
testimonial  about  the  soundness  of  my  work. 

The  following  kind  expression  of  opinion  given  to  me 
by  Colonel  Cooke  and  the  officers  of  the  i/th  Lancers,  and 
other  members  of  my  Lucknow  class,  will  afford  an  idea  of 
the  sort  of  horses  I  had  to  take  in  hand. 

'We,  the  undersigned,  wish  to  place  on  record  our  appreciation  of 
Captain  M.  H.  Hayes'  methods  of  breaking  horses  of  all  kinds.  The 
methods  are  various,  and  are  applicable  to  all  sorts  of  unbroken  or 
refractory  horses  :  most  simple  in  application,  and  thoroughly  efficacious. 
Some  of  the  subjects  submitted  to  Captain  Hayes  to  test  his  methods 
were  as  follows  : — 

*  A  chestnut  Waler  of  E-A.,  R.  H.  A.,  would  not  allow  itself  to  be 
mounted,  being  most  violent  if  mounting  it  were  attempted,  in  a  short 
time  allowed  anyone  to  mount  and  dismount. 

'An  unbroken  remount  and  bad  buck-jumper  of  i;th  Lancers,  in  the 


1 1 6  Among'  Men  and  Horses. 

course  of  two  hours,  became  quiet  to  ride  and  perfectly  tractable.  Ample 
proof  was  afforded  of  the  complete  control  that  could  be  quickly  gained 
over  any  horse.  A  stubborn  refuser  of  the  8th  B.  C.  very  soon  took  a 
delight  in  jumping  ;  and  a  confirmed  jibber  of  the  iyth  Lancers  was 
glad  in  a  short  time  to  move  in  any  direction  asked.  These  few  instances 
we  consider  convincing  proof  of  the  great  power  of  Captain  Hayes's 
system.' 

My  most  apt  pupil  in  the  ifih  Lancers  was  Major  (now 
Colonel)  Benson,  who  afterwards  commanded  the  regiment. 
At  Mhow  I  stayed  with  my  old  friend  '  Ding '  MacDougal, 
who  is  one  of  the  finest  steeplechase  riders  and  polo  players 
in  the  service.  His  colonel  and  brother  officers  told  me  that 
they  were  greatly  pleased  with  my  breaking  at  the  class 
which  I  held  in  their  riding-school. 

I  taught  the  I2th  Lancers,  at  Bangalore  ;  the  Carabin- 
eers, in  Sealkote ;  the  8th  Hussars,  at  Meerut ;  the  King's 
Dragoon  Guards,  at  Rawul  Pindee  ;  and  '  The  Bays,'  at 
Umballa.  The  only  English  cavalry  regiment  which  was 
in  India  at  that  time  and  which  I  did  not  meet,  was  the 
2d  Dragoon  Guards,  some  of  whose  officers,  of  which 
Colonel  (now  General)  Wardropp  was  one,  came  over  to 
Umballa  to  join  my  class.  General  Wardropp,  who  is  a 
thorough  horseman,  helped  me  in  the  breaking,  and  spared 
no  pains  to  learn  everything  he  possibly  could  about  it.  At 
Calcutta  I  had  an  immense  class  in  the  race-course  paddock 
which  was  kindly  lent  me  by  the  Stewards  of  the  Calcutta 
Turf  Club.  I  have  especially  to  thank  Sir  John  Lambert, 
the  Commissioner  of  Police,  for  his  help  on  that  occasion. 

Altogether,  I  held  about  fifty  classes  at  different  places 
in  India.  Except  once  for  a  charitable  object,  and  on  the 
special  occasion  of  breaking  in  a  zebra  in  Frank  Fillis's 
Circus,  I  did  not  attempt  to  give  a  public  breaking  show ; 
because  I  thought  (and  think)  I  could  give  my  public  better 
value  for  their  money  by  endeavouring  to  teach  them,  than 
by  trying  to  amuse  them.  A  mere  breaking  exhibition, 
besides  being,  under  the  most  favourable  circumstances,  a 


Gaining  Experience.  1 1 7 

'  thin '  show  to  the  ordinary  sightseer,  has  the  terrible  draw- 
back that,  with  every  precaution  taken  by  the  showman,  the 
performers,  namely,  the  supposed  vicious  horses,  may  refuse 
to  '  play  up,'  and  then  the  innocent  showman  runs  the  chance 
of  being  branded  as  a  fraud.  In  a  class,  the  teacher  meets 
only  those  who  are  horsemen,  or  who  have  proved  their 
interest  in  the  subject  of  horses  by  paying  their  money. 
Consequently,  if  he  has  new  and  sound  things  to  show 
them,  he  will  be  certain  of  an  attentive  hearing,  even  if  he 
has  only  quiet  horses  upon  which  to  operate. 

No  doubt,  my  readers  would  wish  to  know  if  I  was 
invariably  successful  with  the  bad  horses  I  took  in  hand. 
Not  always,  I  can  reply,  but  nearly  always.  I  remember 
only  one  or  two  animals — jibbers  which  nothing,  apparently, 
could  get  out  of  a  walk  or  very  slow  trot — that  I  found  was 
too  much  for  me.  A  breaker  can  work  only  with  the  material 
he  has  at  hand,  and  cannot  give  pluck  and  high  spirits 
to  the  cowardly  and  sullen  ;  though  he  can  always  ensure 
docility;  besides  I  sometimes  had  not  time  to  finish  those 
I  took  in  hand.  India  is,  socially,  a  small  place ;  though, 
geographically,  a  vast  continent.  Had  I  bungled  badly  at 
one  station,  the  news  would  have  preceded  me  wherever  I 
went,  and  I  could  not  have  continued  my  tour.  On  the 
contrary,  my  fame  increased  as  I  travelled  through  India, 
and  I  left  behind  me  a  good  impression,  if  I  may  judge  by 
the  testimonials  I  received,  and  by  the  largely-increased  sale 
of  my  books.  *  The  cause  ? '  you  ask  ?  Not  any  extraordin- 
ary cleverness  on  my  part,  I  can  assure  you,  but  the  immense 
amount  of  experience  I  gained,  which,  as  I  shall  explain,  can 
never  be  equalled  by  that  to  be  obtained  by  anyone  who  will 
come  after  me.  In  the  course  of  instruction  in  the  art  of 
giving  horses  good  manners  and  snaffle-bridle  mouths,  I  used 
to  show  to  the  members  of  my  class  every  method  and  dodge 
which  I  knew  were  useful  in  breaking,  and  illustrated  their 
employment  on  the  animals  brought  to  me.  Though  I 
worked  very  hard,  I  enjoyed  myself  immensely ;  for  I  met 


1 1 8  Among-  Men  and  Horses. 

some  of  the  best  fellows  in  the  world,  and  I  kept  learning 
more  about  horses  than  I  had  ever  dreamed  it  were  possible 
to  do.  When  I  arrived  in  India,  the  knowledge  of  horse- 
breaking  was  very  small  in  that  country  ;  consequently,  there 
was  a  large  number  of  vicious  and  unmanageable  animals, 
most  of  whom  I  successfully  handled.  The  majority  of  my 
pupils  were  owners  and  enthusiastic  lovers  of  horses.  They 
profited  so  much  by  my  instruction  that  they  have  reduced 
the  percentage  of  '  difficult '  horses  to  a  very  small  figure. 
The  horses  imported  from  Australasia,  which  used  to  supply 
by  far  the  greatest  proportion  of  vicious  brutes,  are,  owing 
to  improved  management,  becoming  year  by  year  quieter 
and  more  easy  to  handle.  Hence,  anyone  who  will  follow 
in  my  footsteps  in  India,  will  find  wild  horses  almost  as 
scarce  there,  as  in  England.  I  went  to  India  very  ignorant  ; 
but  each  one  of  the  hundreds  of  bad  horses  I  handled  taught 
me  something.  Wherever  I  went,  I  had  in  my  classes  the 
most  experienced  men  among  horses  in  the  place.  While 
showing  them  all  I  knew  and  trying  to  explain  everything 
I  could  about  breaking,  I  was  certain  to  be  told  any  wrinkle 
or  device  which  any  of  my  pupils  had  found  useful.  On 
learning  anything  of  this  kind,  I  tested  it,  and  if  it  turned 
out  good,  I  promptly  shoved  it  into  my  metaphorical  bag 
of  tricks,  to  be  utilised  on  future  occasions.  Consequently, 
I  not  alone  amassed  invaluable  experience,  but  also  acquired 
the  most  of  the  knowledge  previously  possessed  by  all  the 
fine  horsemen  whom  I  had  the  privilege  of  meeting.  Had 
I  lived  a  thousand  years  working  by  the  light  of  only  my 
own  experience,  I  would  not  have  obtained  half  the  know- 
ledge, for  the  possession  of  which  I  am  indebted  to  horse- 
loving  friends  whom  I  have  met  in  many  parts  of  Europe, 
Asia  and  Africa  ;  to  say  nothing  of  books. 

As  my  readers  will  understand  from  remarks  I  have 
already  made,  sulky,  stubborn  horses  are  infinitely  more 
difficult  to  break  than  the  wild,  hot-headed,  and  hostile  kind, 
but  give  practically  no  '  show.'  Two  hours'  tuition  would 


Lord  Dufferin.  1 1 9 

be  enough  to  qualify  an  ordinary  draper's  assistant  who 
had  never  previously  placed  his  hand  on  a  horse,  to  make 
the  worst  man-eater  in  the  world  quiet  in  far  less  time  than 
Rarey  took  to  subdue  the  historical  Cruiser ;  and  yet  years 
of  teaching  and  practice  might  not  enable  this  supposititious 
young  gentleman  to  win  obedience  from  an  obstinate  refuser, 
or  jibber  in  harness.  In  the  former  case,  a  mechanical  routine 
is  sufficient ;  in  the  latter,  the  operator  requires  patience,  tact, 
experience,  and  inspiration.  Knowing  how  brilliant  is  the 
result  and  how  easy  of  accomplishment  is  the  breaking  of 
a  mad  buck-jumper  or  ferocious  savage,  we  can  hardly  blame 
the  showman  for  playing  to  the  gallery  with  one  of  this  sort ; 
instead  of  giving  with,  say,  a  jibber,  an  exhibition  which  would 
be  as  dull,  as  it  would  be  meritorious. 

As  I  continued  to  gain  experience,  I  rejected  or  improved 
old  methods,  and  adopted  new  ones.  I  found  that,  for  prac- 
tical (not  '  show ')  purposes,  the  voice  and  the  reins  should  be 
the  chief  means  employed  in  the  preparatory  breaking  of  the 
horse  ;  for  their  application  can  be  repeated  (repetition  being 
the  grand  means  for  confirming  the  desired  habit  of  obedi- 
ence) without  inconvenience  and  with  manifestly  good  effect, 
every  time  we  either  ride  or  drive  the  animal.  However 
effective  throwing  a  horse  down  or  making  him  waltz  round 
with  his  head  tied  to  his  tail,  may  be  for  '  taking  the  non- 
sense '  out  of  him,  neither  of  these  methods  come  within  the 
scope  of  the  ordinary  horse  owner,  especially  if  they  have  to 
be  repeated  on  several  occasions.  I  soon  rejected  the  use  of 
the  Indian  war  bridle  for  a  method  by  which  I  make  a 
horse  stand  steady  when  I  order  him  to  do  so. 

The  kindness  and  hospitality  I  received  during  this  tour, 
were  not  more  gratefully  appreciated  by  me  than  the  warm 
interest  which  was  taken  in  my  work.  Thanks  to  the  good 
offices  of  Lord  William  Beresford,  the  Military  Secretary  to 
the  Viceroy,  I  held  a  large  class  at  Simla  under  the  patronage 
and  presence  of  their  Excellencies  Lord  and  Lady  Dufiferin, 
and  Lord  and  Lady  Roberts.  Knowing  that  there  were  only 


1 20  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

quiet  horses  to  handle  at  the  seat  of  Government  in  the  hills, 
I  brought  all  the  way  from  Calcutta  with  me  an  Australian 
buck-jumper,  which  gave  a  fine  and  exciting  show.  Lord 
Dufferin  being  a  good  horseman  and  an  Irishman,  was  fore- 
most in  wanting  to  learn,  so  that,  as  he  laughingly  told  me 
he  might  break-in  his  own  hunters  when  he  got  back  to 
'  The  Old  Country.'  Though  England  could  badly  spare  her 
greatest  and  most  honoured  diplomatist,  I  feel  certain  that  he 
would  be  happier  in  a  good  hunting  county  in  Ireland,  with  a 
nice  stable  of  horses  and  a  well-selected  pack  or  two  of 
hounds,  than  he  is  now  as  Ambassador  at  Paris.  The  world 
knows  him  chiefly  as  a  diplomatist  of  extraordinary  tact  and 
wisdom  ;  and  yet  he  is  quite  as  able  in  winning  the  love  and 
respect  of  his  fellow  men,  as  he  is  in  securing  political 
victories.  He  and  Lord  Mayo,  both  fine  Irish  sportsmen, 
contrast  very  favourably  indeed  with  other  viceroys  I  might 
name.  Lady  Dufferin  was  a  fit  wife  for  a  mighty  ruler.  She 
is  a  grande  dame,  sympathetic,  and  large  minded.  On  the 
day  I  gave  my  first  performance  at  Simla,  the  Commander- 
in-Chief — he  was  then  Sir  Frederick  Roberts — very  kindly 
asked  me  to  lunch.  Referring  to  the  interest  he  took  in  my 
work,  he  drew  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  had  in  his 
library  all  my  books.  After  acknowledging  this  very  high 
compliment,  I  could  not  help  saying  in  fun,  after  glancing  at 
them,  that  he  had  not  the  book  I  wrote  on  military  tactics. 
The  implied  suggestion  that  he  should  consult  my  ideas  on 
tactics,  of  which  he  is  the  great  past  master,  was  received  by 
the  Commander-in-Chief  and  those  of  his  staff  who  were 
present,  as  a  great  joke.  Before  the  lunch,  I  gave  Sir 
Frederick  a  private  seance  with  a  horse  of  his  which  would 
not  jump  for  him.  Twenty  minutes  with  the  long  reins  made 
the  animal  take  in  the  kindest  manner,  the  fence  we  had  put 
up  on  the  lawn.  Lord  Roberts  is  as  good  and  resolute  on 
horseback  as  any  subaltern  in  the  service.  He  is  a  remark- 
ably nice  weight,  and  is  wonderfully  fortunate  in  having  kept 
his  nerves  in  good  order.  He  has  a  kind  spot  in  his  heart 


Mr  Rudyard  Kipling.  1 2 1 

for  horses  and  sport ;  although  he  is  now  altogether  devoted 
to  his  military  duties.  His  chief  thought  in  life  is  how  to 
improve  the  men  under  him  in  discipline  and  morale.  Lord 
Herbrand  Russell,  who  is  now  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  was  also 
in  my  Simla  horsebreaking  class,  and  was  kind  enough  to 
lend  my  wife  his  handsome  pony,  Countryman,  to  ride  while 
she  was  in  the  hills.  He  was  a  good  horseman,  and  used  to 
take  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  pony  racing,  which  was  the 
only  form  of  racing  that  was  possible  on  the  small  course  in 
the  hills. 

During  my  tour  through  Burma,  I  had  the  honour  of 
meeting  the  present  Commander  -  in  -  Chief  of  India,  Sir 
George  White,  at  Mandalay,  where  he  was  commanding.  As 
soon  as  I  had  seen  him  and  had  answered  his  kindly  greeting, 
I  thought  his  hard  resolute  face  and  tall  athletic  figure  were 
strangely  familiar  to  me.  And  then  came  gradually  to  me 
the  memory  of  a  summer's  morning  at  Glenbrook,  on  the 
Cork  River,  twenty-three  years  gone  by,  when  I  was  a 
Woolwich  cadet,  home  for  the  holidays,  which  I  was  spend- 
ing by  getting  into  training  for  some  rowing  races.  A  young 
officer  in  a  Highland  regiment,  who  had  been  staying  with 
a  gentleman  who  resided  close  by,  had  backed  himself  to 
do  a  weight-lifting  feat  against  any  Irishman  his  host  could 
produce.  He  selected  me,  with  the  result  that  I  proved  good 
enough  for  the  task  ;  although  he  might  have  got  other  men 
much  better  than  I  was  to  compete  against  the  future  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  India. 

At  Lahore,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  for  the  first 
time,  Mr  Rudyard  Kipling,  who  was  then  a  clever  lad  of 
about  nineteen,  and  as  yet  unknown  to  fame.  He  was  on  the 
staff  of  the  Civil  and  Military  Gazette,  and  was  doing  much 
to  brighten  its  hitherto  somewhat  staid  columns.  Although 
his  tastes  were  wholly  literary,  he  wrote  for  his  paper  a 
graphic  and  interesting  account  of  my  horsebreaking  per- 
formances, which  he  witnessed,  and  which  seem  to  have 
impressed  him,  if  I  may  judge  by  his  mention  of  my  name 


122  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

in  one  of  his  Plain  Tales  from  the  Hills.  He,  like  Phil. 
Robinson,  found  that  India  was  too  small  a  place  for  a  man 
of  literary  power,  and  soon  left  it. 

I  had  so  many  pleasant  experiences  during  my  tour  in 
India,  that  I  would  fain  dwell  on  them  ;  but  as  they  would 
no  doubt  be  more  interesting  to  me  than  to  my  readers,  I 
must  pass  by  them  with  a  few  exceptions.  I  met  a  pleasing 
relic  of  old  Indian  hospitality  on  the  road  I  was  travelling  by 
pony  express  between  Nowshera  and  Hoti  Murdan,  on  my 
way  to  meet  that  fine  regiment,  The  Guides,  the  officers  of 
which  had  invited  me  to  come  and  teach  them  the  art  of 
horsebreaking.  Having  travelled  about  half  of  the  thirty 
odd  miles  of  the  journey,  I  was  beginning  to  feel  the  effects 
of  the  northern  Punjab  sun,  whose  rays  were  beating  down 
on  my  tonga  (Indian  curricle),  when  I  was  stopped  in  the 
road  by  a  Native,  who  carried  on  his  shoulders  a  couple  of 
large  baskets  slung  on  a  pole.  In  reply  to  my  query  as  to 
what  he  wanted,  he  handed  me  a  well-worn  card  upon  which 
was  written  :  *  Weary  and  welcome  traveller  to  Hoti  Murdan, 
rest  awhile  and  refresh  yourself.'  The  Native,  evidently  well 
accustomed  to  his  task,  proceeded  to  a  green  and  shady  spot 
close  by  ;  laid  down  his  baskets,  and  extracted  from  them  a 
clean  white  tablecloth,  upon  which  he  laid  out  a  delicious 
cold  lunch,  with  a  plentiful  supply  of  liquor,  soda  water,  and 
cigars.  I  very  heartily  drank  the  health  of  my  generous- 
hearted,  though  yet  unknown  friends,  and  having  done  justice 
to  the  excellent  fare,  proceeded  on  to  meet  the  fine  fellows  who 
ably  guard  our  northern  frontier.  I  may  mention  that  when 
travelling  by  pony  post  in  India,  the  stages  are  usually  about 
five  miles  long,  and  are  covered,  when  the  roads  are  good,  at 
a  fast  hand  gallop.  One  of  these  ponies,  which  average  about 
13.1  high,  when  harnessed  in  a  small  two-wheeled  cart,  is 
capable,  with  ease  to  itself,  of  carrying  two  or  three  men  sixty 
miles,  from  sunrise  to  sunset  on  a  burning  hot  day,  provided 
it  is  halted  every  five  or  six  miles,  and  given  about  three 
quarts  of  water,  in  which  about  a  pound  of  parched  barley 


Hyderabad.  123 

meal  is  mixed.  This  is  a  fact,  to  which  I  have  further 
alluded  in  Training  and  Horse  Management  in  India^  that 
persons  who  advocate  the  practice  of  withholding  drinking 
water  from  a  horse  until  he  is  quite  cool,  should  lay  to 
heart. 

At  Hyderabad  I  held  a  class  consisting  of  over  fifty  of  the 
Native  noblemen,  who  are  almost  all  fine  horsemen.  In  fact, 
their  polo  team  is  second  to  none  in  India.  The  Mahamadan 
gentlemen  are  viveurs,  fond  of  spending  money,  delight  in 
owning  horses  and  racing,  hospitable,  and  are  uncommonly 
good  '  company.'  The  two  I  liked  best  were  Sar  Firaz 
Hussain  (usually  called  *  Sir  Francis '  by  the  English  resi- 
dents) and  Vikar  ul  Umra.  The  Nizam  is  not  much  of  a 
sportsman,  and  appears  to  devote  himself  chiefly  to  his 
domestic  duties.  Missing  the  strong  hand,  over  them,  of  a 
man  like  the  old  Salar  Jung,  it  is  little  to  be  wondered  at 
that  the  turbulent  crew  which  surround  this  native  throne, 
prove  difficult  to  manage. 

I  always  found  that  I  could  make  the  best  '  show '  with  a 
horse  which  was  merely  difficult  to  mount :  for  by  the  voice, 
it  was  easy  in  four  or  five  minutes  to  make  the  most  unruly 
animal  of  this  kind  stand  like  a  statue  to  be  mounted.  Ex- 
perienced horsemen  know  how  terribly  annoying  the  practice 
of  this  vice  may  be,  and  how  frequently  it  spoils  the  sale  of 
an  animal  intended  for  a  lady  (who,  however  well  she  may 
ride,  requires  her  horse  to  be  fairly  steady  to  mount),  or  timid 
man.  And  yet  nothing  is  easier  than  to  make,  by  a  few 
repetitions  of  the  discipline  I  have  indicated,  such  animals 
perfectly  steady  to  mount.  In  all  this  work,  we  should  en- 
deavour, in  the  plainest  possible  manner,  to  show  our  pupil 
that,  if  he  rebels,  he  will  be  punished  ;  if  he  obeys,  he  will  be 
rewarded  ;  and  that,  in  all  cases,  he  is  powerless  to  resist  our 
commands.  My  readers  may  well  ask  :  '  If  scientific  horse- 
breaking  be  so  easy  and  so  effective,  as  it  appears  to  be  from 
your  description  ;  how  is  it  that  there  are  so  many  spoiled 
horses  in  existence  ? '  I  reply,  that  the  adoption  of  new 


124  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

methods  and  new  principles  in  any  art,  is  a  slow  and  gradual 
process  ;  and  that,  though  very  simple,  the  successful  practice 
of  horsebreaking  demands  an  amount  of  patience,  tact  and 
firmness  rarely  united  in  one  person.  On  the  other  hand,  I 
can,  with  some  justifiable  pride,  point  to  the  fact  that  a  large 
number  of  horse  owners,  especially  officers  in  the  army,  in 
in  which  I  have  a  great  following,  break-in  their  animals 
according  to  the  doctrines  I  teach. 

One  of  the  worst  horses  I  ever  handled,  was  an  Australian 
mare,  called  Britomarte,  and  owned  by  Mr  '  Jimmy '  M'Leod, 
a  well-known  indigo  planter,  who  had  promised  to  get  me  up 
a  large  class  if  I  would  come  up  to  his  factory  in  Chumparum. 
Mr  M'Leod  is  one  of  the  old  style  of  princely  planters,  who 
keeps  open  house  and  a  stable  of  sixty  or  seventy  horses  for 
the  use  of  his  friends  as  much  as  for  himself.  If  you  go  to 
stay  with  him,  he  will  be  certain  to  get  up  a  *  pigstick,5  a 
shooting  party,  or  a  race  meeting  for  your  entertainment. 
Before  he  got  too  heavy,  he  was  the  finest  steeplechase  rider 
in  India,  and  is  still  uncommonly  bad  to  beat  either  across 
country  or  on  the  polo  ground.  When  I  arrived,  I  found  a 
class  of  fifty  planters  at  ^£5  a  piece,  and  Britomarte  awaiting 
me.  Her  history  during  the  two  years  Mr  M'Leod  had  her, 
was  that  she  would  neither  be  ridden  nor  driven.  She  was 
so  clever  in  the  art  of  getting  rid  of  her  would-be  riders,  that 
if  she  could  not  catapult  them  off  by  buck-jumping,  she  would 
throw  herself  over  on  them.  In  harness  she  adopted  the 
policy  of  passive  resistance,  and  refused  to  put  one  foot  in 
front  of  another,  even  after  she  had  been  put  in  as  a  wheeler 
in  a  four-in-hand  team,  and  had  been  dragged  along  the 
ground  by  her  three  companions  for  several  hundred  yards, 
and  until  she  had  been  torn  and  cut  so  badly  that  her  wounds 
took  months  to  heal.  As  Mr  M'Leod  had  had  immense  ex- 
perience in  the  breaking  of  rough  horses,  which  was  a  special 
hobby  of  his ;  it  can  be  imagined  that  all  the  ordinary 
methods  of  discipline  had  been  tried  in  vain  on  the  bay 
mare.  At  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  after  my  arrival, 


Britomarte.  125 

the  shapely  and  untamed  Britomarte  was  led  into  the  ring 
round  which  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  party  sat  or 
stood  in  eager  expectation  of  what  was  going  to  be  done.  I 
put  the  long  reins  on  the  mare,  and  tried  to  move  her  from 
side  to  side  by  these  means  ;  but  she  played  the  role  of  a 
cataleptic  who  was  dead  to  all  external  impressions.  I  kept 
trying  to  'bend'  her  through  the  heat  of  that  Indian  day, 
still  at  the  end  of  the  two  reins,  though  breakfast  had  been 
announced  and  eaten  and  lunch  was  waiting  on  the  table, 
until  I  felt  mad  and  fit  to  cut  up  and  eat  the  sulky  fiend  who 
stood  in  front  of  me  refusing  to  move.  The  hum  of  expectant 
conversation  had  ceased  ;  the  ladies  looked  woefully  bored  ; 
the  men  mixed  sodas  and  whiskies  and  smoked  their  cheroots 
as  if  they  were  performing  a  solemn,  religious  duty  ;  while  I 
kept  getting  more  and  more  furious,  though  I  dared  not 
betray  my  rage  ;  for  I  knew  that  an  angry  jerk  at  the  reins 
or  a  cut  of  the  whip  would  bring  back  into  the  mare  all  the  old 
'  devil/  which  was  fast  leaving  her.  At  last,  she  took  two  or 
three  steps  to  the  left ;  one  or  two  to  the  right ;  then  I  managed 
to  induce  her  to  circle  to  the  left ;  and  a  little  later  to  the  right. 
Having  done  this,  I  soon  got  her  to  circle,  turn,  and  move  off, 
by  merely  feeling  the  reins  or  raising  my  hand  as  a  signal  for 
her  to  go  on.  I,  then,  put  a  saddle  on  her,  and  got  her  soon 
as  quiet  as  an  old  gentleman's  hack.  Her  driving  instruction 
occupied  only  a  comparatively  short  time,  after  which  time 
she  went  '  kindly '  for  the  first  time  in  her  life,  after  having 
been  in  my  hands  for  seven  hours.  '  What  a  terribly  long 
business '  I  imagine  I  hear  my  readers  saying.  Seven  hours, 
I  may  well  plead,  are  not  a  long  time  to  do  a  task  which 
experienced  horsemen  failed  to  accomplish  in  a  couple  of 
years.  As  Britomarte  had  been  the  victress  in  many  battles, 
it  required  an  unusual  amount  of  patience  and  tact  to  make 
her  take  the  all-important  first  step.  '  Was  that  one  lesson 
enough  to  cure  her  of  her  vices  for  the  remainder  of  her  life  ? ' 
probably  asks  a  reader  who  has  not  carefully  studied  my 
remarks  on  horsebreaking.  Having  heard  and  answered 


1 26  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

similar  questions  many  hundreds  of  times,  I  reply  almost 
automatically  :  That  repetition  of  the  discipline  which  ob- 
tained the  desired  control  can  alone  confirm  the  habit  of 
obedience ;  that  each  succeeding  lesson  will  be  easier  to 
impart  than  the  one  which  preceded  it ;  that  the  effect  of 
the  first  lesson,  if  it  were  not  repeated  may,  or  may  not, 
quickly  wear  off ;  and  that  one  act  of  injudicious  mismanage- 
ment, even  in  punishing  the  mare  with  whip  or  spur,  may 
undo  in  a  moment  all  the  benefit  of  the  previous  instruction. 
All  I  know  about  Britomarte's  further  career,  is  that  I  saw 
her  a  week  later,  being  ridden  about  quietly  by  an  indifferent 
horseman. 

Mr  John  Hubert  Moore  was  the  first  to  impress  upon  me 
the  futility,  as  a  general  rule,  of  trying  to  cure  vicious  horses 
for  other  people.  Many  years  ago,  before  he  had  arrived  at 
that  conclusion,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  the  late  Lord 
Combermere  to  buy  up  all  the  cheap,  but  otherwise  good, 
horses  which  were  troubled  with  a  '  pain  in  their  temper,'  to 
cure  them  of  their  respective  faults,  and  then  to  sell  them  as 
reliable  conveyances.  The  frequent  cases  they  had  of  these 
supposed  reformed  characters  being  returned  on  their  hands 
for  having  *  broken  out '  again,  caused  them  to  abandon  the 
scheme.  Profiting  by  the  experience  of  the  great  Irish  breaker, 
I  have  always  found  it  more  satisfactory  to  teach  an  owner  how 
to  break-in  a  spoiled  horse,  than  to  attempt  the  task  myself. 

Towards  the  end  of  my  Indian  trip  I  did  some  racing, 
and  ought  to  have  made  a  lot  of  money  on  one  occasion  ; 
but  didn't.  It  happened  in  this  way.  That  good  sportsman 
Mr  (now  Captain)  Bates  of  the  King's  Dragoon  Guards  got 
up  at  Rawul  Pindee  a  meeting,  at  which  there  was  some 
brisk  gambling.  I  had  two  of  my  own  and  a  couple  of 
animals  belonging  to  Mr  Larpent  (now  Baron  de  Hochepied), 
who,  not  being  able  to  be  present,  occupied  the  most  of  the 
time  of  the  local  telegraph  clerks  by  wiring  to  me  :  '  Go  Nap,' 
or  words  to  that  effect.  The  instructions  of  the  young  Peeler 
(he  was  then  in  the  Bombay  Police)  were  disastrous  ;  for  by  a 


'  The  Treasure?  127 

strange  fatality  our  gees  kept  running  second  to  the  horses  of 
'  The  Treasure/  and  to  those  of  a  Captain  Beresford  of  the 
Gunners.  The  races  ended,  we  paid  our  money,  I  had  my  last 
drink  at  the  hospitable  King's  Dragoon  Guards'  mess,  and  de- 
parted to  run  a  *  show  '  at  the  next  station,  and  recoup  the  lost 
coin.  I  was  hardly  well  out  of  the  place,  when  Captain  Beres- 
ford died  of  typhoid  fever,  and  on  the  examination  of  his 
papers  it  turned  out  that  he  and  *  The  Treasure  '  were  racing 
confederates.  As  they  had  neglected  to  declare  that  fact  before 
the  late  meeting  was  held  ;  the  races  for  which  Mr  Larpent 
and  I  had  run  second,  as  well  as  the  bets  dependent  on  them, 
were  awarded  to  us.  Unfortunately,  control  on  up-country 
Indian  meetings  was,  at  that  time,  slack  ;  '  The  Treasure,' 
instead  of  '  parting '  went  to  England,  and  we  neither  got 
back  the  money  we  had  paid,  nor  did  we  receive  our  win- 
nings. Such  occurrences  were  not  uncommon  in  that  country. 
Men  with  the  best  intentions  got  up  races ;  but  as  they  gave 
their  time  and  trouble  for  nothing,  and  as  they  were  not 
altogether  free  agents,  having  generals  and  colonels  over 
them,  they  could  not  enforce  payment  as  promptly  as  they 
might  have  wished.  The  carrying  over  of  race  accounts  from 
one  meeting  to  another  was  also  a  fruitful  cause  of  default, 
which  ended,  as  might  have  been  expected,  by  the  abolition 
of  most  of  these  up-country  fixtures  which  once  formed  a 
very  pleasant  feature  in  Indian  life.  After  all,  the  real  culprits 
were  the  Suez  Canal,  increased  railway  communication,  and 
depreciation  in  the  value  of  the  rupee.  In  the  old  days,  men 
went  to  a  station,  lived,  sported,  gambled  and  drank  there 
till  most  of  them  died  ;  for  the  nearest  seaport  could  be 
reached  only  by  palankeen  or  garee  dawk,  and  after  that 
there  was  a  four  months'  voyage  round  the  Cape  to  face. 
Then,  the  rupee  was  worth  2s.  2^d. ;  now  it  stands  at  is.  I  jd. 
With  the  currency  at  that  price,  and  England  within  21  days' 
journey,  it  can  hardly  be  wondered  at,  that  most  of  the 
young  fellows,  now,  choose  marriage  and  lawn  tennis  in 
preference  to  horses  and  shooting. 


Photo,  by  Clarence  Hailey,  St  John's  Wood  and  Newmarket. 


CHAPTER     IX. 

Nellie  Reid — Sample  and  his  Machine—  A  Class  at  Woolwich — Mr  Hermann 
Vezin — Ormonde — Mr  John  Porter — Breaking  at  Kingsclere — School- 
work  for  Race -horses— Captain  Fitzgerald. 

HAVING  finished  my  Indian  tour,  I  returned  to  England 
to  spend  the  money  I  had  made.  Landing  at  Liver- 
pool, and  seeing  that  Sample  was  running  a  show  there,  I 
went  to  the  circus  he  had  taken,  and  found  he  was  having  an 
equine  variety  entertainment  with  Nellie  Reid,  two  trick  horses 
called  Pet  and  Daisy,  and  some  clever  jumpers,  in  conjunction 
with  his  horse-taming  class.  Miss  Reid  was  a  bold,  fine 
horsewoman,  who,  two  or  three  years  before,  had  drawn  all 
London  to  the  Westminster  Aquarium  to  see  her  ride  over  a 
reputed  6-foot  wall  on  poor  John  Wilson's  Australian  gelding, 
Union.  Cavanagh,  a  jockey  well-known  in  India  and  Ceylon, 
used  to  ride  with  her  on  a  clever,  long-tailed  grey  horse. 

128 


Miss  Nellie  Reid.  1 29 

The  obstacle,  which  was  a  boarded  structure  made  to  re- 
semble a  wall,  was  held  in  a  sloped  position  by  a  man  at 
each  end,  ready  to  be  let  down  in  case  the  animal  struck  it. 
Despite  this  circus-like  method,  which  detracted  from  the 
workman-like  appearance  of  the  affair,  Miss  Reid's  per- 
formance was  of  great  merit ;  for  Union,  night  after  night, 
jumped  fully  5  feet  3  inches.  After  the  show  was  over,  I 
had  supper  with  Sample  and  Miss  Reid,  and,  of  course,  we 
had  a  great  talk  about  horses  and  business  at  home  and 
in  foreign  parts.  I  was  sorry  to  hear  that  my  old  friend 
had  done  no  '  good  '  since  I  last  saw  him  ;  but  he  was  buoyed 
up  with  hope,  for  he  had  seething  in  his  active  brain  a 
new  invention  for  the  training  of  horses,  which,  as  he  ex- 
pressed it,  would  lick  creation.  It  consisted,  so  he  informed 
me,  of  a  machine  into  which  he  could  put  a  wild  horse,  and 
in  a  couple  of  minutes  bring  him  out  of  it  as  tame  as  a 
mouse !  It  had  lost  him  in  making  experiments  with  it,  a 
lot  of  money,  which  he  regarded  as  lent  at  usurious  interest 
on  the  safest  possible  security.  He  was  also  going  to  patent 
it  in  all  the  principal  countries  in  the  world.  As  I  admired 
his  pluck,  enthusiasm  and  originality,  I  was  careful  to  say 
nothing  that  was  not  encouraging  to  him.  Knowing  what 
great  experience  he  had  had  in  horse  taming,  I  felt  certain 
that  he  would  work  out  his  ideas  all  right  in  practice  ;  but 
I  could  not  help  thinking  that  any  method  of  horse  taming, 
however  perfect  it  may  be,  forms  at  best  only  a  small  portion 
of  the  preliminary  education  of  a  horse,  and  that  it  is  not 
required  with  one  out  of  fifty  horses  which  are  brought  up 
under  civilised  conditions  like  those  in  the  United  Kingdom. 
Had  he  been  in  the  possession  of  an  invention  which  could 
with  mechanical  precision  give  a  horse  a  good  mouth,  form 
his  paces,  and  teach  him  to  jump  cleverly,  I  would  have 
offered  him  everything  I  had  in  the  world,  and  would  have 
begged  him  to  take  me  into  partnership.  As  it  was,  I  com- 
mended his  scheme  warmly,  praised  his  ingenuity,  and  parted 
from  him  with  the  best  of  good  wishes  on  both  sides. 

I 


1 30  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

During  that  year,  I  amused  myself  principally  by  going 
to  races.  There  being  no  wild  horses  in  England  to  tame, 
I  did  not  attempt  the  farce  of  a  public  show,  beyond  giving, 
at  the  invitation  of  Miss  Undo,  a  practical  lecture  on  horse 
control  and  on  riding,  in  aid  of  the  funds  of  the  Home  of 
Rest  for  Horses.  As  a  novelty,  I  demonstrated,  with  the 
assistance  of  my  wife,  whose  fine  riding  on  that  occasion 
was  praised  in  The  Field  and  illustrated  in  The  Graphic,  a 
method  for  teaching  ladies  and  men  how  to  ride,  especially 
over  fences,  without  having  to  hold  on  by  the  reins. 
Although  I  was  the  first  to  put  this  method  into  practice, 
I  hardly  like  to  say  that  I  invented  it ;  because  it  gradually 
evolved  itself  in  my  mind,  during  my  horse-breaking  work 
with  the  long  reins.  At  the  performance  in  question,  Miss 
Reid  and  Miss  Streeter  also  helped  by  some  nice  riding  to 
render  the  affair  a  success. 

By  the  kindness  of  Colonel  *  Sam '  Lyons,  who  was  in 
command  of  the  Horse  Artillery  Riding  Establishment  at 
Woolwich,  I  held  a  class  at  the  riding-school  there.  Colonel 
Lyons  takes  a  great  interest  in  the  training  of  horses  for 
military  purposes.  He  did  everything  in  his  power  to  help 
me  in  my  work  and  to  render  my  visits  to  Woolwich  pleasant. 
My  time  was  occupied  there  chiefly  in  teaching  refractory 
horses  to  'passage,'  rein  back,  jump,  or  to  perform  other 
ordinary  evolutions  at  which  they  had  previously  rebelled. 
The  only  bit  of  taming  I  had  was  with  a  Commissariat  mule, 
which,  for  the  preceding  four  or  five  months,  so  I  was  told, 
would  not  allow  anyone  to  handle  him,  and  had  consequently 
passed  his  time  in  his  stall,  eating,  drinking,  and  sleeping, 
without  doing  any  work.  Having  gone  down  to  where  he 
was  stabled,  I  led  him  out  of  his  stall  and  took  him  up  to 
the  riding-school,  where  within  an  hour,  he  became  so  quiet 
that  he  was  handled,  saddled,  and  ridden  about  without 
giving  any  trouble.  My  readers  will  naturally  suppose  that 
the  Commissariat  officers,  whose  ignorance  of  breaking  had 
been  the  cause  of  the  country  having  been  deprived  of  the 


Mr  Hermann  Vezin.  131 

services  of  this  mule  for  several  months,  would  have  come 
to  my  class,  paid  the  fees,  learned  my  methods,  and  have 
completed  the  course  of  instruction  which  I  had  commenced, 
and  which  I  had  shown  was  easy  of  accomplishment.  Not 
a  bit  of  it !  On  the  contrary,  they  blamed  me  ;  because,  by 
their  ignorant  mismanagement,  they  were  able  after  a  few 
days  to  undo  all  the  good  effects  of  my  one  lesson,  and  to 
make  the  mule  as  bad  as  he  was  before.  I  cannot  too 
strongly  impress  on  my  readers  that,  as  a  rule,  it  is  of 
but  little  use  attempting  to  cure  a  spoiled  horse  or  mule, 
without  at  the  same  time  teaching  the  method  of  instruction 
to  the  animal's  owner  or  caretaker,  who  can  then  confirm 
the  habit  of  obedience  by  repetition  as  may  be  required. 
When  I  began  teaching  my  Woolwich  friends,  I  could  not 
help  thinking  of  the  last  time  I  was  in  that  manege,  bumping 
round  and  '  making  the  corners '  to  the  orders  of  that  stern  dis- 
ciplinarian, Sergeant-Major  Dann,  who  is  now  a  major  without 
the  'Non-Corn.'  title.  The  fact  of  my  being  the  only  non- 
official  who  has  ever  been  received  in  that  exclusive  riding- 
school,  was  an  exceedingly  high  compliment,  which  I  fully 
appreciated.  On  parting,  Colonel  Lyons  and  the  other 
members  of  the  class  said  a  lot  of  very  nice  things  to  me 
about  my  teaching. 

Mr  Hermann  Vezin,  the  well-known  actor,  whom  I  knew, 
as  he  used  to  teach  my  wife  elocution,  had  a  great  fancy  for 
seeing  horses  broken-in,  and  accompanied  me  in  the  quest 
on  a  few  occasions.  Long  ago  he  had  attended  Rarey's 
performances,  and  seemed  to  highly  approve  of  my  work  at 
Woolwich,  where  my  pupils  were  always  glad  to  see  him. 
Like  many  members  of  my  various  classes,  Mr  Vezin  knew 
nothing  practically  about  horses,  and  never  went  near  one  ; 
yet  these  animals  possessed  a  great  attraction  for  him.  Had 
I  had,  during  my  tours,  to  rely  solely  on  the  support  of 
horsey  people,  I  would  not  have  been  able  to  have  paid  my 
way.  In  fact,  I  often  found  that  men  who  prided  themselves 
most  on  their  knowledge  of  horses,  thought  it  derogatory  to 


132  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

their  local  reputation  to  be  taught  orally  by  me  ;  though, 
luckily,  their  scruples  on  this  point  did  not  extend  to  the 
perusal  (when  no  one  was  looking)  of  my  books.  Others, 
on  the  contrary,  to  whom  horse  lore  could  not  have  been  of 
any  possible  use,  were  eager  for  theoretical  instruction,  for 
which  they  were  glad  to  pay.  I  certainly  could  not  have 
made  my  horse-breaking  tours  with  anything  like  the  ready 
recognition  I  received  from  the  public,  had  not  the  fame  (if 
I  may  be  pardoned  the  word)  of  my  books  preceded  me. 
Wherever  I  went,  with  the  exception  of  South  Africa  and 
Berlin,  I  found  that  the  English-speaking  residents  knew  me 
through  my  writings,  and  were  predisposed  in  my  favour.  On 
the  other  hand,  my  success  in  breaking-in  horses  and  in  teach- 
ing this  art  to  others,  has  greatly  stimulated  the  sale  of  my 
books,  which,  in  their  later  editions,  owe  a  large  part  of  any 
merit  they  may  possess,  to  the  practical  experience  I  gained 
during  my  travels. 

Through  the  kindness  of  that  good  sportsman,  Lord 
Chesham,  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  knowing  in  India 
when  he  belonged  to  the  loth  Hussars,  I  obtained  permission 
from  the  Duke  of  Westminster  to  have  Ormonde,  the  horse  of 
all  time,  photographed  ;  as  I  wanted  his  portrait  for  the  book 
I  was  writing  on  the  '  make  and  shape  '  of  horses.  With  this 
object,  I  went  to  Mr  John  Porter's  place  at  Kingsclere,  and 
besides  getting  the  horse  '  taken/  I  gave  the  great  trainer  and 
his  people  a  practical  demonstration  of  how  to  break-in  and 
mouth  young  thoroughbreds.  To  experiment  upon,  he  gave 
me  a  high-priced  yearling  which  had  never  been  mounted, 
and  which  belonged  to  the  Prince  of  Wales.  In  about  half 
an  hour,  I  made  the  youngster  so  quiet  and  handy,  that  he 
allowed  himself  to  be  quietly  ridden  about  the  paddock,  and 
answered  the  indications  of  the  reins  with  a  fair  amount  of 
precision.  Mr  Porter  seemed  very  pleased  with  the  work, 
and  asked  me  where  he  could  get  the  tackle  I  used,  as  he 
wished  to  put  in  practice  what  he  had  seen  me  do  that  after- 
noon. I  was  only  too  glad  to  present  him  with  the  gear 


Photo,  by  Dickinson,  1 14  New  Bond  Street. 

MR  JOHN  PORTER. 


Mr  John  Porter.  135 

which  I  had  brought  with  me,  and  which  I  hope  has  proved 
useful  to  him.  We  had  a  long  talk  about  breaking-in  young 
horses  for  racing,  and  he  thoroughly  agreed  with  me  that 
yearlings  would  be  greatly  benefited  by  a  course  of  modified 
school  work,  before  being  ridden  in  regular  exercise.  I  may 
explain  that  the  proportion  of  weight  which  the  forelegs 
have  to  support  will  be  greater  when  the  horse  is  mounted 
(on  account  of  the  foreward  position  of  the  rider),  than  when 
he  is  at  liberty.  Consequently,  saddle-horses  are  apt  to  '  go 
too  much  on  the  forehand,'  and  their  forelegs  are  more  liable 
to  suffer  from  the  injurious  effects  of  work,  than  are  their  hind 
limbs.  The  kind  of  school  drill  which  I  have  indicated, 
would,  to  a  certain  extent,  correct  this  tendency  to  surcharge 
the  forehand,  by  teaching  the  animal  to  go  in  a  more 
'  collected '  form  than  he  would  naturally  do.  I  need  hardly 
say  that  a  horse  as  a  rule  will  travel  best  when  the  distribution 
of  the  weight  borne,  respectively,  by  his  fore  and  hind  limbs,  is 
preserved  as  nearly  as  possible  in  its  natural  position.  We 
know  from  experience  that  a  horse  which  is  constantly  ridden 
by  a  competent  rider,  learns  after  a  time  to  go  in  a  '  well- 
balanced  '  style  ;  but,  while  receiving  such  tuition,  his  forelegs 
are  much  more  exposed  to  injury,  than  if  he  had  not  a 
weight  on  his  back.  Besides,  an  instructor  on  foot,  can 
teach  his  pupil  quicker,  more  effectively,  and  with  far  less 
risk  to  tendon  and  ligament,  than  he  could  do  were  he  in  the 
saddle. 

Mr  Porter,  I  need  hardly  say,  is  one  of  the  most  famous 
trainers  of  all  time ;  having  brought  to  the  post,  among 
many  hundreds  of  other  winners,  such  great  horses  as 
Rosicrucian,  Blue  Gown,  Pero  Gomez,  Isonomy,  Bend  Or, 
Geheimniss,  St  Blaise,  Common,  La  Fleche,  Orme,  and 
Ormonde,  who  was  undoubtedly  the  best  horse  that  ever 
carried  silk  or  satin.  It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  meet 
him. 

During  this  year,  which  we  spent  in  England,  we  saw  a 
great  deal  of  Captain  Fitzgerald  (late  of  the  i6th  Lancers), 


136  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

who  used  to  keep  the  Royal  Military  Riding  School  in 
Gloucester  Crescent,  Bayswater.  He  was  a  most  enthusiastic 
'  school '  teacher,  and  was  particularly  partial  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  ladies  in  the  various  airs  de  manege.  Probably,  the 
two  best  ecuyeres  he  turned  out  were  Miss  Nellie  Reid  and 
'  Mile.  Jenny,'  who  is  at  present  a  well-known  haute  ecole 
exponent  in  France.  Baron  de  Vaux  says  : — '  Miss  Jenny 
est  aborigine  anglais e  ;  cest  une  fort  belle  per sonne  qui  a  obtenu 
presqne  autant  de  succes  comme  femme  que  comme  ecuyere. 
He  was  anxious  for  me  to  join  him  ;  but  the  roving  fit  was 
strong  on  me,  and  I  wanted  to  see  new  countries  and  to 
acquire  more  knowledge  about  horses.  Besides,  I  did  not 
think  there  was  much  profit  to  be  obtained  from  keeping  a 
riding-school.  The  rent  is  terrible,  hay  and  corn  bills  and 
wear  and  tear  of  horse  flesh  are  awful,  the  slack  season  is 
appalling,  and  the  fees  have  been  cruelly  cut  down  by  compe- 
tition. Had  the  financial  aspect  of  the  business  been  promis- 
ing, I  would  have  gladly  co-operated  with  Captain  Fitzgerald  ; 
as  he  is  one  of  the  nicest  men  I  have  ever  met.  He  has 
marvellously  charming  manners,  and  is  consequently  a  great 
favourite  with  ladies,  some  of  whom  were  inclined  to  try  his 
good  nature  as  regards  his  horses  and  school  somewhat  too 
highly.  He  has  since  then  sold  the  business,  and  was  lately, 
I  am  glad  to  say,  made  a  Knight  of  Windsor.  My  old  friend, 
Mr  E.  M.  Owen,  the  well-known  gentleman  rider,  now  man- 
ages the  establishment  in  his  usual  capable  manner ;  for  he 
has  a  main  de  fer  under  a  gant  de  velours.  They  are  not 
likely  to  put  the  '  comehether '  on  him. 


Photo  by  Clarence  H ailey,  St  John  s  Wood  and  Newmarket. 


CHAPTER    X. 

Gibraltar — Malta — Duke  of  York — Duke  and  Duchess  of  Edinburgh — Cairo 
— Colonel  Valentine  Baker — General  Grenfell — Horses  in  Egypt — Cey- 
lon and  its  Planters — Breaking  a  Jibber — The  Spanish  Mail — Tubbing 
— Singapore — Mr  Harry  Abrams — Horses  from  Western  Australia — 
Horsebreaking — Savage  Horses — Wood  Flooring  for  Stables. 

TIRED  of  inaction  we  packed  up  the  breaking  bag,  saddle 
box,  and  the  old  trunk,  and  sailed  in  the  autumn  of 
1887  to  Gibraltar,  where  I  had  a  class  composed  of  the 
officers  of  the  garrison  waiting  for  me,  thanks  to  the  kindness 
of  Major  Crookenden  of  the  Royal  Artillery,  who  had  sent  a 
flattering  account  of  my  doings  at  Woolwich  to  his  brother 
gunners  on  the  Rock.  I  saw  several  beautiful  Spanish  mules 
at  Gibraltar.  The  horses  and  ponies  were  a  poor  lot,  being 
mostly  Barbs,  which  look  like  under-bred  and  weedy  Arabs. 
From  careful  inquiries  made  there,  at  Malta  and  in  Egypt,  I 
would  say  that  the  horses  of  Northern  Africa  are  fully  3  stone 
inferior  to  the  true  Sons  of  the  Desert.  Though  useful  slaves, 


1 38  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

they  are  as  a  rule  deficient  in  spirit.  At  Malta  I  had  a  big 
class  largely  composed  of  naval  officers  from  the  flag-ship, 
Alexandra.  These  fine  young  sailors  (Mr  Colville  and  Mr 
Lambton,  the  brother  of  the  well-known  gentleman  rider, 
among  others)  were  enthusiastic  lovers  of  horses,  and  had  a 
large  number  of  polo  ponies,  which  they  generally  managed 
to  take  with  them  wherever  they  went.  As  I  used  to  hold  my 
breaking  classes  on  The  Marsa,  a  level  piece  of  open  ground 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  outside  the  city  of  Valetta,  on  which 
polo  is  played  and  the  races  are  held,  I  often  saw  the  Duke 
of  York  play  polo.  He  was  an  enthusiast  about  the  game, 
rode  hard,  and  was  greatly  liked  by  his  shipmates,  of  whom  I 
saw  a  good  deal,  both  at  my  class  and  in  the  Union  Club  in 
the  Strada  Reale.  Among  the  officers  of  the  fleet,  the  Duke 
of  Edinburgh  was  also  popular  and  respected.  In  the  after- 
noons, I  usually  saw  him  and  his  nephew  playing  billiards  at 
the  club.  The  young  prince  seemed  full  of  fun  and  life,  and 
was  well  able  to  take  his  own  part  all  round.  He  always 
seemed  to  particularly  enjoy  the  fact  of  his  being  able  to  beat 
his  uncle  at  billiards.  Both  in  Malta  and  at  Cairo  I  was 
singularly  unlucky  in  being  unable  to  get  any  wild  or  vicious 
horses  with  which  to  '  show  off'  at  my  classes.  I  need  hardly 
say  that  such  instruction,  however  useful  it  may  be,  can  be 
greatly  brightened  up  by  practical  illustrations  of  an  exciting 
and  dangerous  kind.  My  failure  to  obtain  a  single  good  case 
at  Malta,  where  all  the  animals  were  of  the  '  dead '  quiet 
sort,  was  very  galling  to  me ;  for  the  Duchess  and  her  daugh- 
ters did  me  the  honour,  on  three  or  four  occasions,  to  come 
to  my  class  on  The  Marsa.  At  Alexandria,  on  the  contrary, 
where  my  class  was  only  a  small  one,  I  had  several  good 
show  horses  and  a  couple  of  refractory  mules.  Such  is  life  ! 
Thanks  to  the  friendly  offices  of  poor  Colonel  Valentine 
Baker,  *  Bobby '  Kekewich  of  my  old  regiment  and  others, 
I  had  a  large  gathering  at  Cairo,  where  I  saw  a  good  deal  of 
Colonel  Baker.  He  had  singularly  charming  manners,  and 
was  loved  by  everyone  who  knew  him.  General  Grenfell  was 


Ceylon.  139 

also  a  member  of  the  class.  He  is  a  real  sportsman  as  well 
as  a  fine  soldier.  Captain  Astley  tells  me  that  General  Gren- 
fell  was  a  subaltern  in  the  6oth  Rifles,  with  thirteen  years'  ser- 
vice, when  he  went  home  with  him  in  1871.  Since  then  he 
has  made  up  a  lot  of  lost  time  in  promotion. 

The  horses  in  Egypt  are  mostly  Syrian  Arabs,  which  are 
about  intermediate  in  merit  between  Desert  Arabs  and  Barbs. 
Animals  bred  in  Egypt  from  Arab  sires  and  dames,  lose  a 
good  deal  of  the  Arab  type,  in  that  they  tend  to  become  long 
on  the  leg  and  '  weedy.'  About  ten  years  before  the  time  of 
which  I  am  writing,  I  had  the  pleasure  of  being  introduced  by 
Artin  Bey  to  that  great  lover  of  horses,  AH  Pasha  Shereef, 
who  showed  me  over  his  stables.  From  their  inspection, 
and  from  what  Colonel  Baker  and  other  good  judges  have 
told  me,  I  am  convinced  that  very  few  good  Arabs  go  to 
Egypt,  where  their  average  price  is  about  £22. 

From  Egypt  we  went  on  to  Ceylon,  where,  practically,  no 
horses  are  bred  ;  those  that  are  used  being  imported  from 
India  or  Australia.  Within  the  tropics,  at  altitudes  but  little 
higher  than  the  sea  level,  it  is  impossible  to  rear  good  riding 
or  driving  animals.  As  regards  the  raising  of  stock,  increased 
height  above  the  sea  has  the  same  effect  as  increased  dis- 
tance from  the  equator.  Thus,  on  the  mountains  of  northern 
Sumatra,  which  is  close  to  that  imaginary  line,  are  to  be  found 
a  breed  of  ponies  unsurpassed  for  strength  and  endurance. 
The  hill  country  of  Ceylon  is  too  small  in  extent,  and  too  ill 
provided  with  pasture,  to  allow  on  it  the  production  of  useful 
horses  or  ponies.  I  had  a  pleasant  and  profitable  tour  among 
the  planters  of  that  island  ;  as  they  are  extremely  hospitable 
and  are  devoted  to  horses.  They  are  as  good  in  work  as  in 
sport,  and  have  proved  their  pluck  by  the  successful  battle 
they  have  fought  against  many  difficulties.  Up  to  about  the 
year  1867  the  growing  of  coffee  was  to  them  like  the  working 
of  Robinson's  good  mine  in  South  Africa.  They  lived  like 
princes  and  raced  with  thoroughbreds  specially  imported  from 
England  and  Australia.  And  then  the  crash  came  and  all 


140  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

but  ruined  them.  As  a  remedy,  they  seized  upon  cinchona, 
which  under  their  diligent  hands  produced  so  much  quinine 
that  that  valuable  antiperiodic  fell  in  price  from  ten  shillings 
to  two  shillings  an  ounce,  and  had  then  to  be  all  but  aban- 
doned. Cocoanuts  and  cocoa  brought,  in  a  few  instances, 
relief  to  financial  strain :  till  tea,  in  an  incredibly  short  time, 
has  made  them  prosperous.  The  abundant  moisture  and 
warmth  in  the  Ceylon  planting  districts,  render  the  ground 
eminently  fitted  for  the  production  of  'leaf  :  even  more  so 
than  for  that  of  berry.  The  fear,  which  I  sincerely  trust  is 
unfounded,  hangs  over  these  fine  fellows  that  the  light  soil  of 
their  land  may  in  time  become  exhausted,  and  that  '  red 
spider '  and  blight  may  ruin  their  tea  industry.  If  that  day 
does  come,  which  I  fervently  pray  may  be  long  postponed, 
it  will  find  the  brave  planters  full  of  resource  and  courage. 
I  have  sojourned  among  planters  in  Tirhoot,  Chumparun, 
Assam,  Cachar,  Kangra,  Wynaad,  and  Ceylon,  and  have 
carried  away  only  one  impression  about  them,  and  that  is, 
that  for  hospitality,  sporting  feeling,  and  entire  absence  of 
'  side,'  they  are  not  to  be  surpassed. 

The  only  breaking  incident  worthy  of  notice  which  I  can 
recall  in  connection  with  Ceylon,  was  that  of  a  bad  jibber 
whose  owner,  at  one  of  my  classes,  insisted  on  seeing  if  I 
could  make  his  animal  start  kindly  in  harness.  As  this  gen- 
tleman was  the  superintendent  of  several  tea-gardens,  I  could 
not  very  well  refuse  his  request  to  be  served  first.  On  ordinary 
occasions,  I  was  always  allowed  my  own  discretion  in  choosing 
the  order  of  taking  the  horses  which  were  brought  to  me  to 
experiment  upon,  and  naturally  liked  to  commence  with  a 
frisky  one  or  two,  so  as  to  give  some  zest  to  the  proceedings, 
and  to  keep  the  sulky  ones  to  the  end,  by  which  time  I  would 
have  had  an  opportunity  of  winning  the  confidence  and  good- 
will of  my  audience.  As  this  gentleman  appeared  to  '  fancy 
himself  a  good  deal  about  his  knowledge  of  horses,  I  thought 
of  a  way  to  pay  him  out  and  at  the  same  time  to  utilise  his 
influence  in  increasing  the  numbers  of  my  class.  Accordingly 


A  Jibber.  141 

I  said  I  would  take  his  horse  as  my  first  subject,  and  that  I 
would  handle  no  other  until  I  had  driven  it  all  over  the  place, 
which  was  a  feat  that  had  never  been  done  before.  I  begged 
the  gentlemen  present  to  bear  patiently  with  me;  for  the 
breaking  of  such  a  determined  jibber,  as  this  one  was,  could 
not  be  accomplished  in  a  hurry ;  and  then  I  commenced  the 
job.  As  horses  have  extremely  retentive  memories,  I  knew 
that  it  would  be  hopeless  trying  to  get  this  one  to  start  by 
using  any  of  the  signals  with  which  he  was  only  too  well 
acquainted.  Hence  I  carefully  refrained  from  hitting  him 
with  the  whip,  '  clicking '  to  him  with  my  tongue,  or  speaking 
to  him.  I  put  on  him  an  'open  '  bridle  (one  without  blinkers), 
attached  to  it  a  pair  of  long  reins,  and  commenced  to  turn, 
circle  him  and  rein  him  back.  Whenever  I  wanted  him  to 
start,  I  slightly  raised  my  right  hand  as  a  signal,  which  he 
readily  learned  to  obey,  as  it  was  new  to  him,  and  was  conse- 
quently unconnected  in  his  mind  with  any  idea  of  punishment 
or  of  contest  between  him  and  his  driver.  Contrary  to  my 
usual  practice,  I  did  not  vouchsafe  a  word  of  explanation  to 
my  class,  but  kept  on  mutely  doing  my  best  to  break  the 
horse  according  to  my  own  way.  After  an  hour  or  so,  I  got 
into  the  dog-cart  to  which  I  had  harnessed  the  horse,  started 
him  off,  pulled  him  up,  started  him  again,  and  drove  him  in 
every  direction  I  was  asked.  The  owner  was  delighted  ;  he 
thanked  me  warmly,  and  allowed  me  to  go  on  with  the  class 
in  the  way  I  thought  best.  Next  morning  when  I  came  down 
at  the  appointed  hour  to  the  breaking-ground,  I  saw  my  pupils 
all  assembled  with  the  owner  of  the  jibber  looking  as  if  he 
was  in  a  particularly  sulky  mood.  I  asked  him  how  his  borse 
was,  and  hoped  he  had  had  a  pleasant  drive.  *  He  is  just  as 
bad  as  ever/  he  replied.  I  accordingly  went  up  to  the  horse, 
which  had  been  led  up  to  our  place  of  meeting,  changed  his 
usual  harness-bridle  for  an  open  one,  took  hold  of  the  reins, 
got  on  to  the  box-seat,  slightly  raised  my  right  hand,  and 
off  he  started  as  '  kindly '  as  possible.  Thereupon  the  owner's 
face  beamed  with  pleasure,  and  he  called  out  to  me  to  let  him 


142  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

take  the  ribbons  ;  for  he  saw,  so  he  said,  that  he  had  made  the 
mistake  of  using  a  bridle  with  blinkers.  I  made  no  reply  ;  but 
got  down  and  handed  him  the  reins.  He  jumped  up, ( clicked  ' 
to  him,  gave  him  a  job  in  the  mouth  with  the  reins,  and  was 
surprised  beyond  measure  that  the  animal  stuck  his  fore  legs  out 
in  front  and  refused  to  move  a  yard.  To  make  matters  worse, 
he  cut  the  horse  with  the  whip,  and  after  trying  in  vain  every- 
thing he  knew  to  make  him  start,  he  relinquished  the  attempt 
and  began  to  blame  me  !  My  reply  was  again  to  take  the 
reins,  get  into  the  trap,  and  start  the  horse  off  as  easily  as  I  had 
done  before.  *  You  see/  I  said  to  my  class,  *  how  unreasonable 
this  gentleman  is.  I  have  shown  him  the  correct  method  of 
accomplishing  the  task  he  set  me.  Instead  of  adopting  it,  he 
tries  to  make  the  horse  start  according  to  his  own  way,  and 
because  it  fails,  he  blames  me.'  I  then  explained  how  I  had 
attained  my  end  with  the  horse,  for  no  one  had  observed  the 
slight  signal  I  had  given  to  the  animal  with  my  right  hand  ;  and 
pointed  out  how  much  more  useful  it  would  be  for  me  to  be 
allowed  to  teach,  than  to  exhibit  proof  of  my  own  skill.  I 
then  had  all  the  class  on  my  side,  including  my  late  task- 
master. With  hardly  an  exception,  my  pupils  have  met  me 
in  the  most  generous  spirit,  and  have  been  inclined  to  give 
me  more  credit  than  was  my  due.  I  would  not  have  men- 
tioned the  foregoing  incident,  had  it  not  been  one  which  is 
always  apt  to  occur  to  a  teacher  of  breaking,  and  which 
illustrates  certain  useful  points  about  horses. 

Ceylon  is  an  intensely  interesting  country  to  a  miner- 
alogist who,  like  myself,  is  fond  of  the  study  of  precious 
stones.  As  that  science  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  book, 
I  must  not  write  about  it  here. 

We  left  Ceylon,  bound  for  Singapore,  on  the  Spanish 
mail  boat,  Isla  de  Mindanao.  This  fine  and  well-appointed 
steamer  carried  forty-five  first-class  passengers,  all  Spaniards 
except  ourselves,  and  including  about  a  dozen  priests.  The 
food,  cooked  a  rEspagnole,  was  excellent  At  meals 
there  was  un  unlimited  supply  of  free  wine,  of  good  quality 


The  Spanish  Mail.  143 

and  of  various  kinds.  Contrary  to  hearsay  and  tradition, 
there  was  not  on  board  a  single  guitar,  or  any  resemblance 
to  one,  with  the  exception  of  my  wife's  banjo  !  Our  fellow- 
passengers  appeared  an  amiable  lot  of  people;  but  as  only 
one  or  two  of  them  knew  French,  and  only  one  of  them 
spoke  English,  and  as  we  knew  only  a  few  words  of  Spanish, 
our  conversations  with  them  were  naturally  short.  Having 
learned  at  Gibraltar  something  about  the  ways  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Peninsula,  I  bargained,  before  taking  our  passage, 
that  there  was  to  be  no  extra  charge  for  baths,  for  which 
the  others  were  liable  to  be  charged  three  pesetas ;  a  sum 
equivalent  to  half-a-crown.  This  was  high,  considering  that 
the  material  used  was  simply  cold  sea  water,  without  any 
hot  water  or  steam  thrown  in.  The  Spaniards  treated  the 
extortion  with  admirable  forbearance  ;  for,  with  only  one  re- 
corded exception,  they  refrained  from  bathing  during  the 
voyage.  In  fact,  they  were  quite  as  dirty  in  this  respect  as 
were  English  people  of  good  birth  a  hundred  years  ago.  We 
roving  Englishmen  and  Irishmen,  having  adopted  from  the 
Hindus  the  practice  of  daily  ablutions,  are  accustomed  to 
boast  about  it  as  a  national  characteristic.  This  tubbing 
custom  has  not  been  adopted  very  willingly  by  us,  else  we 
would  not  flourish  our  bathing-towel  and  big  sponge  as 
obtrusively  as  we  do  in  the  face  of  less  Indianised  foreigners. 
The  chaste  and  brave  are  not  those  who  respectively  talk 
most  about  their  virtue  and  their  courage.  Leaving  out 
such  bold  innovators  as  soldiers,  sailors,  Varsity  and  public 
school  men,  I  venture  to  say  that  the  average  lower  middle- 
class  Briton  does  not  have  a  bath  oftener  than  once  a  month, 
and  the  ordinary  British  workman  not  more  frequently  than 
once  a  quarter.  There  is  a  good  deal  of  truth  in  the  old 
story  about  two  workmen  who,  during  the  annual  excursion 
given  by  their  employer  to  his  people,  went  bathing.  One, 
observing  the  state  of  his  companion's  skin,  made  a  remark 
about  its  being  dirty.  '  That's  nothing/  replied  the  other,  c  I 
missed  last  year's  outing.'  Then  again,  there  is  the  ancient 


144  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

retort  that  persons  who  tub  every  day  must  be  very  filthy  to 
require  so  much  washing.  In  that  respect,  women  seem  to 
be  the  greatest  sinners,  as  we  can  have  ample  proof  if  we 
inquire  at  any  of  the  London  vestry  baths  about  the  respec- 
tive proportions  of  male  and  female  bathers.  We  of  course 
remember  Edmund  About's  Italian  young  lady,  who  being 
questioned  as  to  her  fondness  for  tubbing,  exclaimed,  '  What ! 
I  a  noble  Roman  maiden  to  wash  my  body  with  water ! 
Never !  I  sometimes  lave  it  with  milk.'  Not  long  ago,  when 
staying  for  a  few  days  at  the  only  hotel  in  the  Dutch  village 
of  Boxtel,  I  asked  mine  host  if  I  could  have  a  bath.  He  re- 
plied that  there  was  no  such  thing  in  the  place.  I  inquired 
as  to  the  procedure  adopted  by  the  inhabitants  when  they  de- 
sired to  wash  themselves  all  over.  He  answered  that  they  did 
so  in  the  river,  or  went  without.  I  followed  up  by  demand- 
ing to  know  if  the  ladies,  also,  bathed  in  the  river ;  to  which 
he  exclaimed  that  Dutch  vrows  respected  themselves  too 
much  to  be  guilty  of  any  such  impropriety.  I  could  not  help 
thinking  that  were  I  a  young  bachelor,  I  would  not  come  to 
Boxtel  for  a  sweetheart. 

The  approach  to  Singapore  through  the  narrow  Straits, 
which  open  into  the  China  Sea,  and  which  are  studded  with 
beautifully-wooded  islands,  is  singularly  picturesque.  Being 
close  to  the  equator,  the  whole  face  of  the  undulating  land  is 
covered  by  an  extraordinary  wealth  and  variety  of  tree  and 
plant  life  :  but  it  is  the  worst  place  for  a  '  show '  I  have  ever 
been  in.  There  are  a  fairly  large  number  of  white  men  who,  for 
the  most  part,  belong  to  local  mercantile  houses,  in  the  transac- 
tion of  the  business  of  which,  they  spend  the  greater  portion  of 
their  forenoons  and  afternoons, and  having  done  their  work,  they 
flit  off  to  their  residences,  which  dot  the  surrounding  country 
at  distances  between,  say,  two  to  six  miles  from  the  city. 
Consequently,  during  the  evenings  and  early  morning,  no 
one  who  can  afford  to  sleep  out  of  Singapore  remains  in  it. 
This  custom  is  delightful  from  a  social  and  domestic  point  of 
view  ;  but  is  abominable  to  a  showman,  who,  to  make  his 


Singapore.  145 

'ex.'s/  must  have  his  audience  close  at  hand.  The  dismal 
tales  which  I  heard  of  companies  stranded  at  this  gate  of 
the  Far  East  were  quite  enough  to  make  me  give  up  the 
idea  of  a  performance.  We  stayed  on,  however,  for  about 
ten  days  to  see  the  place ;  to  eat  that  most  delicious  of  all 
Eastern  fruits,  the  mangosteen  ;  and  to  enjoy  the  congenial 
society  of  Mr  Harry  Abrams,  who  keeps  a  large  horse  reposi- 
tory at  Singapore,  and  who,  in  the  kindest  possible  manner, 
placed  all  his  horses  at  our  disposal ;  so  we  had  more  than 
enough  to  ride  and  drive  during  our  stay.  Having  graduated 
in  John  Dawson's  training  stable,  he  is  a  fine  horseman  both 
on  the  flat  and  across  country;  and  is  the  best  man  I  have 
ever  seen  at  driving  a  team  of '  difficult '  horses,  such  as,  for 
instance,  four  'scrubbers'  which  had  never  had  a  bridle  on 
their  heads  before  being  yoked  to  his  brake,  which  he  gener- 
ally succeeded  in  making  them  draw  after  a  more  or  less 
prolonged  fight.  Had  I  held  a  class,  I  could  have  got  an 
abundant  supply  of  unruly  subjects  upon  which  to  have 
shown  off  my  skill ;  for  Abrams's  yard  was  full  of  freshly- 
landed  Western  Australians,  than  whom  there  are  no  more 
sulky  brutes  in  the  form  of  horses.  They  are  bred  promis- 
cuously, and  are  '  taken  up '  so  late  that  the  process  of  break- 
ing seems  to  destroy  the  little  scrap  of 'heart'  they  might 
have  originally  possessed.  They  appear  to  have  only  two 
faults,  namely,  they  are  very  hard  to  break,  and  when  they 
are  broken  they  are  no  good.  Tom  Sayers  or  Jem  Mace,  at 
his  best,  was  downright  slow  in  'popping  in  the  left 'com- 
pared to  one  of  these  unhandled  brutes. 

I  may  here  explain  that  the  vicious  Australian  horses 
which  I  encountered  in  India,  Ceylon,  and  Singapore,  though 
infinitely  more  difficult  to  reduce  to  obedience  than  any  to 
be  found  in  the  United  Kingdom,  had  all  gone  through  the 
discipline  of  a  voyage  of  at  least  a  month  on  board  ship, 
in  which  they  had  to  stand  in  a  narrow  stall,  tied  up  to  the 
manger.  The  fact  of  their  having  head  collars  on,  in  no  way 
proved  that  they  would  allow  themselves  to  be  bridled  or 

K 


146  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

their  heads  touched  without  making  a  desperate  resistance  ; 
because,  no  matter  how  wild  a  horse  may  be,  the  Australian 
rough  riders  easily  manage  to  put  a  head  collar  on  him  by 
driving  him  into  a  '  crush/  in  which  he  can  be  securely  fixed. 
A  crush,  I  may  remark,  consists,  as  a  rule,  of  two  rows,  seven 
or  eight  feet  long,  and  about  two  and  a  half  feet  wide,  of 
strong  posts  let  into  the  ground,  and  provided  with  pieces 
of  wood  which  can  be  used  to  block  up  both  ends.  Such  an 
erection  may  be  used  for  the  entrance  into  one  paddock  from 
another,  in  which  case,  any  of  the  horses  passing  through 
can  be  detained  and  tied  up.  Sometimes  the  crush  is  made 
to  open  out,  so  that  the  captive,  after  having  been  forcibly 
bridled,  saddled,  and  mounted,  can  be  suddenly  let  free 
with  full  permission  to  kick  his  rider  off,  if  he  is  able. 
Although  these  imported  horses  have  had  some  of  the  '  rough 
edge  '  taken  off  them,  they  are,  on  arrival,  difficult  to  manage, 
and  as  they  are  rarely  less  than  four  years  old  when  they 
are  caught  and  put  on  board,  they  are  naturally  inclined 
to  fight  on  being  handled  or  backed.  Being  all  either 
geldings  or  mares,  very  few  of  my  Colonial  pupils  had  the 
vice  of  biting,  which  is  generally  confined  to  entires.  I 
have  had  a  great  number  of  so-called  man-eating  East- 
Indian  and  Arab  stallions  pass  through  my  hands,  as  well  as 
horses  of  all  degrees  both  at  home  and  abroad  ;  but  have 
never  known  a  single  instance  of  a  horse,  outside  his  own 
stall,  actually  attacking  with  his  teeth  a  man  who  faced  him  ; 
although  many  animals  will  make  a  feint  of  doing  so.  I  will 
go  farther  and  say  that  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  a  horse  in 
the  world  which,  in  any  open  place,  would  try  his  best  to 
'  savage  '  a  man  who  guarded  himself  with  a  stick  held  in  a 
direction  across  the  animal's  face.  Although  this  statement 
may  be  received  with  incredulity  by  many  ;  I  not  alone 
adhere  to  it,  but  am  prepared  at  any  time  to  prove  it 
practically.  Naturally,  I  shall  have  cited  the  case  of  Cruizer, 
who  was  secured  only  by  Rarey  hiding  under  a  cart  loaded 
with  hay,  which  occupied  the  animal's  attention  while  the 


Wood  Flooring  for  Stables.  147 

American,  from  his  place  of  security,  fixed  his  hobbles  on 
the  horse's  fore-legs.  But  we  must  remember  that  Rarey  was 
a  showman  who  studied  how  best  to  impress  his  audience. 
As  a  cart  and  load  of  hay  were  too  bulky  *  properties '  to 
find  a  place  either  in  my  breaking  bag  or  Gladstone,  I  made  a 
rule  in  all  cases  of  reputed  man-eaters  who  were  brought  to 
me,  to  turn  them  loose  in  the  ring  and  then  to  catch  and 
halter  them  unaided  by  anyone  ;  a  process  which  occupied 
only  a  few  minutes.  Up  to  the  present,  I  have  described 
the  breaking  only  of  horses  which,  though  difficult  and 
dangerous  to  handle,  had  been  subjected  to  a  certain  amount 
of  discipline.  When  I  come  to  the  account  of  my  travels  in 
South  Africa,  I  shall  have  plenty  to  say  about  the  breaking-in 
of  horses  which,  until  they  had  been  driven  into  the  en- 
closure round  which  my  class  used  to  congregate  to  see 
the  fun,  had  never  been  approached,  let  alone  been  touched,  by 
man.  I  beg  my  readers  to  understand  that  I  give  the 
unvarnished  tale  of  my  adventures,  without  any  attempt 
to  claim  the  possession  of  any  peculiar  power  over  horses 
(which  I  certainly  have  not),  or  of  pluck  superior  to  that  of 
other  people.  Wherever  I  went,  I  left  behind  pupils  who, 
after  having  been  taught  by  me,  were  quite  as  capable  of 
successfully  handling  vicious  horses,  as  I  am.  The  whole 
question  is  one  of  knowledge  and  experience. 

At  the  Strait's  Settlement,  I  saw,  for  the  first  time,  boards 
used  for  the  flooring  of  stables.  This  plan,  which  I  have 
subsequently  seen  practised  in  China,  Japan,  and  Natal, 
appears  to  me  excellent.  Wood,  from  the  fact  of  its  being 
a  bad  conductor  of  heat,  protects  from  chill  the  horse's  feet, 
while  he  is  standing ;  and  his  body,  when  he  is  lying  down. 
Besides  this,  the  interstices  between  the  boards  provide  an 
efficient  surface  drainage.  I  may  remark  that  a  damp  place 
for  standing  horses  causes  thrush  and  cracked  heels  ;  and  a 
cold  one,  various  foot  troubles.  Chill,  as  we  all  know,  gives 
rise  to  coughs,  colds  and  chest  affections.  Those  of  us  who 
have  travelled  much  are  well  aware  of  the  great  difference  as 


148  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

far  as  warmth  is  concerned,  between  sleeping  on  the  wooden 
deck  of  a  ship,  and  on  the  ground.  Even  with  straw  on 
stone  or  earth,  we  cannot  always  insure  the  certainty  of  the 
horse's  bedding  remaining  unshifted  and  dry.  It  is  instructive 
to  note  that  navicular  disease  is  particularly  rife  among  horses 
which  stand  for  the  most  part  on  cold  stones.  It  is  notorious 
that  cavalry  horses  which  have  only  paving-stones  under  them 
during  the  day,  are  often  affected  by  this  complaint  ;  although 
their  work  is  of  a  comparatively  light  description.  I  need 
hardly  say  that  as  the  custom  of  the  horse,  when  in  a  state  of 
nature,  is  to  keep  moving  about  while  grazing,  the  circulation 
of  blood  in  his  feet  quickly  becomes  impeded  during  con- 
finement, and  that  this  tendency  to  stagnation  of  blood  in  the 
extremities  will  be  favoured  by  the  contact  of  the  feet  with 
a  good  conductor  of  heat,  like  stone  or  earth.  The  effect  of 
cold  being  to  drive  the  blood  away  from  the  chilled  part,  it  will, 
if  unduly  prolonged,  be  apt  to  give  rise  to  inflammation  on 
the  return  of  the  blood  to  the  blood-vessels,  especially, 
if  the  renewed  circulation  be  strongly  stimulated.  The 
fact  that  blood  vessels  which  have  been  deprived  of  their 
contents  for  a  considerable  time,  become  inflamed  by  the 
return  of  this  fluid,  is  well  demonstrated  by  cases  of  frost- 
bite. 

A  good  way  to  make  a  wood  flooring  for  a  stall  or  loose 
box,  is,  first  of  all,  to  put  down  a  layer  of  smooth  concrete, 
which  of  course  should  be  waterproof,  and  to  have  it  slope 
two  or  three  inches  outwards,  and  also  towards  its  centre, 
so  as  to  ensure  drainage.  A  slightly-raised  ledge,  about 
four  inches  wide,  upon  which  the  planks  could  rest,  might  run 
down  each  side.  The  boards  might  be  nine  inches  wide 
by  three  or  four  inches  thick,  and  should  be  placed  close  to 
each  other.  It  would  be  well  to  slightly  bevel  off  the  sharp 
edges  of  the  planks,  which,  if  required,  might  be  saturated  with 
some  appropriate  preservative  application,  such  as  creosote. 
Drainage  between  the  boards  might  be  provided  for  by 
notches  on  their  sides,  if  necessary.  When  the  animal  leaves 


Straw.  149 

the  stall,  the  planks  should  be  taken  up,  and  the  concrete 
flooring  thoroughly  cleaned.  Straw  used  for  bedding  lasts 
much  longer  on  these  planks,  than  on  ordinary  floors  ;  as  it 
remains  longer  clean,  and  does  not  get  cut  up  so 
much. 


TKKN    KWANG,    A    CHINA     RACING    PONY. 


CHAPTER     XL 

The  Blue  Funnel  Line— '  We  have  never  lost  a  Passenger  ' — Lascar  Crews — 
Steering  on  Land — Chinese  Boatmen — Hong  Kong — China  Ponies — 
Racing  in  China — Buckstone  and  Tim  Whiffler — Mr  Fraser  Smith— 
Bandmann — Shanghai — Mongolian  Ponies — Mr  Kelly  Maitland — 
Small  Feet — Society  in  Shanghai — Shanghai  Race  Club — Horsebreak- 
ing  at  Shanghai — Rickshaws — Gambling  for  Food — Tientsin — Mr  Butler 
— Mafoos — The  French  Mail — Japan — Hotels  and  Food. 

HAVING  been  rendered  thoughtful  by  our  failure  to 
organise  a  performance  in  Singapore,  and  having  a 
new  country  before  us,  we  took  tickets  by  the  ss.  Jason  of  the 
Blue  Funnel  Line,  the  fares  of  which  are  cheap,  and  the  boats 
though  small  and  slow,  are  well-manned  by  white  crews,  and 
are  carefully  navigated.  This  cannot  be  said  of  some  of  the 
steamers  on  that  coast.  By  the  evidence  given  in  the  Aratoon 
Apcar  and  Hebe  collison  case,  it  appeared  that  the  man  in 
charge  of  the  latter,  which  used  to  trade  between  Singapore 
and  Sumatra,  was,  at  the  time  of  the  accident,  a  'black 

150 


The  Blue  Funnel  Line.  151 

gunner ; '  that  the  steersman  did  not  know  the  points  of  the 
compass,  and  that  the  man  on  the  look-out  had  been  only 
seven  months  at  sea.  Mr  Holt,  the  chief  owner  of  the  Blue 
Funnel  Line,  being  a  careful  man,  enacts  the  adoption  of 
special  precautions  from  his  skippers,  such  as  giving  other 
vessels  and  dangerous  land  a  wide  berth,  and  not  entering 
harbours  after  dusk  or  before  dawn.  An  old  captain  of  this 
line  was  once  severely  chaffed  at  a  dinner  party,  for  his 
cautious  style  of  navigation,  by  a  young  manager  of  a  rival 
line  which  had  adopted  close-shaving  and  go-a-head  principles, 
with  somewhat  disastrous  results  ;  and  was  sneeringly  asked 
if  he  did  not  know  every  rock  between  Singapore  and  the 
Taku  Forts.  *  Long  ago,'  replied  the  old  mariner,  *  I  used  to 
think  I  did  ;  but  of  late,  your  ships  have  knocked  them 
about  so  much,  that  they  have  got  mixed  up  a  good  deal,  and 
I  am  unable  to  recognise  many  of  them.'  The  old  '  shellback  ' 
was  allowed  to  finish  his  dinner  in  peace. 

I  like  a  safe  line,  and  for  that  reason  would  prefer  the 
Blue  Funnel  to  many  others  engaged  in  the  Eastern  trade. 
Feeling  secure  on  board  Mr  Holt's  steamers,  we  readily 
attack,  with  what  appetite  the  sea  allows  us,  the  somewhat 
primitive  meals  put  on  the  table,  and  think  of  the  traveller  on 
the  Cunard  boat  who  received,  it  is  said,  to  every  complaint 
made,  the  invariable  excuse  :  '  We  have  never  lost  a  passenger.' 
If  he  demanded  a  clean  napkin,  the  steward  would  blandly 
reply :  '  Sorry  we  have  got  none,  sir  ;  but  we  have  never  lost 
a  passenger.'  If  a  remark  was  made  on  the  rancidity  of  the 
butter,  the  table  attendant  would  complacently  say :  *  It  is 
certainly  not  quite  sweet ;  but  we  have  never  lost  a  passenger.' 
And  so  on. 

The  only  Eastern  line,  judging  from  the  many  journeys  I 
have  made,  that,  to  my  mind,  combines  every  requirement  of 
safety  and  comfort,  is  the  Messageries  Maritime*.  The  black 
crews  of  the  P.  and  O.  steamers,  largely  recruited  as  they  are 
from  boatmen  who  possess  but  little  knowledge  of,  or  experi- 
ence in  seamanship,  do  not  inspire  me  with  confidence.  Even 


1 5  2  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

the  natives,  who  navigate  their  lateen-rigged  craft  round 
the  Indian  coast,  are  only  fair-weather  sailors  who  put  into 
port  and  strike  work  when  the  monsoons  commence  to  blow. 
The  effect  of  climate  on  the  manufacture  of  seamen  is  well 
shown  by  the  difference  between  those  of  the  Levant  and 
Scandinavia.  The  native  sailors  are  cheap  ;  they  are  amen- 
able to  discipline  in  fine  weather  ;  they  do  not  get  drunk  ;  in 
port  they  keep  '  lascar  watch '  (a  continued  case  of  '  all  hands ') 
when  loading  and  unloading,  without  grumbling  ;  and  conse- 
quently meet  the  requirements  of  the  shareholders,  who 
evidently  regard  the  matter,  principally,  from  a  cargo  point 
of  view,  which  is  the  best  '  paying '  one.  The  man  who  asserts 
that  in  times  of  danger  and  in  moments  when  self-sacrifice  is 
demanded  for  the  saving  of  the  lives  of  women  and  children, 
a  crewv  composed  of  Asiatics,  is  the  equal  of  an  English  or 
Scandinavian  one,  is  either  a  wilful  economiser  of  the  truth,  or 
is  wholly  ignorant  of  the  literature  of  shipwrecks.  I  once 
asked  the  captain  of  an  M.  M.  steamer  if  their  line  did  not 
employ,  like  the  Spanish  Compania  Transatlantica,  Scotch  or 
English  engineers.  '  No/  he  replied,  '  our  country  gives  us  a 
large  subsidy  for  carrying  her  mails,  and  expects  in  return 
that  we  shall  employ  only  Frenchmen.'  How  differently  they 
manage  things  in  England,  I  am  sorry  to  say.  My  seafaring 
acquaintances  who  have  had  long  experience  with  Chinese 
crews,  and  with  whom  I  have  spoken  on  the  subject  of  the 
qualifications  of  these  Asiatics,  tell  me  that  these  men,  like 
their  Indian  counterparts,  are  all  right  when  it  is  fine  ;  but 
that  they  are  unreliable  and  apt  to  give  in  to  fate,  when  the 
weather  is  bad.  I  ask  my  itinerant  readers,  to  whom  should 
they  accord  their  patronage  ?  To  lines  that  regard  the  saving 
of  money,  and  the  facility  of  loading  and  unloading  cargo,  as 
more  important  matters  than  the  lives  of  passengers  ?  I  am 
convinced  that  the  apathy  displayed  respecting  this  subject 
by  travellers,  is  chiefly  due  to  ignorance,  and  that  if  the  fact 
of  certain  lines  employing  Lascar  crews,  and  others  white 
men,  was  prominently  put  before  them,  they  would  soon 


Lascars.  153 

show  to  whom  they  prefer  entrusting   their  own  lives,  and 
those  of  their  wives  and  children. 

The  fact  of  experienced  owners  confiding  valuable  vessels 
to  Lascar  crews,  might  be  advanced  as  an  argument  to  prove 
their  reliability.  It  fortunately  happens  that  occasions  of 
extreme  peril  at  sea,  to  cope  with  which  the  Lascar  is  unfit 
by  reason  of  his  want  of  dogged  pluck,  of  physical  strength, 
and  of  capacity  to  endure  cold,  occur  so  rarely,  that  the 
pecuniary  loss  thus  entailed  is,  on  an  average,  less  than  the 
money  saved  by  their  employment  I  need  hardly  say  that 
this  principle  is  the  same  as  that  of  habitually  working  ships 
short-handed.  Were  the  value  of  the  lost  lives  debited  to  the 
Lascar-loving  companies,  how  long,  may  I  ask,  would  they  be 
able  to  run  their  ships  under  the  present  system  ?  Again,  the 
manner  in  which  these  Lascars  are  recruited,  is  often  wholly 
vicious ;  for  it  frequently  happens  that  the  native  boatswain 
(tindal)  '  raises '  the  crew,  who,  having  gained  their  position  by 
his  favour,  naturally  regard  him,  and  not  the  captain,  as  their 
master.  Such  a  practice  is  open  to  the  most  glaring  abuses. 
Besides,  in  none  of  the  Lascar-carrying  lines,  not  even  in  the 
P.  and  O.,  is  there  a  test  demanded  of  the  captain  and  officers 
as  to  their  knowledge  of  Hindustanee.  It  would  be  ridiculous 
to  say  that  it  is  sufficient  if  the  tindal^  who  is  the  supposed 
mouthpiece  of  the  captain  and  officers,  understands  English  ; 
for  peril  at  sea  does  not  always  approach  with  such  slow  and 
measured  steps,  as  to  justify  imperative  loss  of  time  in 
summoning  the  interpreter  and  in  getting  him  to  translate 
orders  ?  Besides,  it  is  as  impossible  for  him  to  be  ubiquitous,  as 
it  is  for  him  to  be  secure  from  accident  or  sickness.  I  grant 
that  the  crew,  as  a  rule,  understand  the  general  purport  of  the 
usual  words  of  command  used  in  making  or  shortening  sail, 
and  other  ordinary  evolutions ;  but  nothing  further.  Is  this  a 
satisfactory  state  of  things  ?  I  appeal  to  my  readers  if  any 
ship  which  has  to  fight  against  wind,  water,  rocks  and  fire, 
can  be  called  efficient,  if  its  respective  officers  and  men  cannot 
make  themselves  mutually  and  readily  intelligible  ?  The 


154  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

foregoing  remarks  are  made  with  reference  to  ocean-going 
steamers,  and  not  to  coasters,  which  spend  almost  as  much 
time  in  port,  taking  in  and  discharging  cargo,  as  they  do  at 
sea. 

After  all  this  talk  about  nautical  matters,  I  have  no  doubt 
that  some  of  my  maritime  readers  will  ask  :  '  What  does 
he  know  about  ships  ?  '  Not  very  much,  I  grant,  except  from 
a  passenger's  point  of  view,  and  of  that  I  have  had  a  lot  of 
experience.  Were  I  to  undertake  the  navigation  of  a  ship  in 
a  crowded  channel,  I  might  fare  no  better  than  did  the 
skipper  who,  having  hired  a  dog-cart,  ran  into  another  con- 
veyance one  night  when  driving  down  a  street.  When  asked 
how  the  collison  happened,  he  explained,  that  having  seen 
two  lights  on  his  starboard  bow,  he  steered  right  between 
them.  They  happened  to  be  carriage  lamps. 

It  was  thorough  punkah  weather  when  we  left  Singapore, 
and  continued  blazing  even  to  Hong  Kong,  which  has  a  lovely 
harbour  that  appears  land-locked  on  every  side,  when  looking 
from  the  town,  behind  which  a  steep  mountain  rises  in  green 
and  wooded  array. 

The  boatmen  of  Hong  Kong,  together  with  their  wives 
and  children,  form  a  large  floating  population.  Each  of  the 
open  row  boats,  or  sampans,  which  take  passengers  to  and 
from  the  shipping  in  the  harbour,  has,  like  a  conjuror's  box,  a 
false  bottom,  that  on  being  lifted  up  will  generally  reveal  a 
nest  of  chubby  little  urchins  who  play,  sleep,  eat  and  have 
their  food  cooked  in  a  sort  of  cockpit,  not  quite  two  feet  high. 
The  sampan  which  took  us  on  shore,  was  handled,  as  is  often 
the  custom,  by  women.  We  had  not  proceeded  far  before  I 
was  surprised  at  hearing  under  my  feet  rippling  sounds  of 
laughter,  and  at  seeing  thin  wreaths  of  smoke  arising  from  the 
centre  of  the  boat.  I  hastily  pulled  up  a  plank,  and  found 
three  or  four  fat  little  toddles  trying  experiments  at  cook- 
ing. 

Although  a  considerable  portion  of  the  population  of 
China  lives  in  boats  on  the  rivers  and  harbours,  not  one  ot 


Chinamen.  155 

these  wretched  heathens  will,  if  his  dearest  friend  tumble  into 
the  water  by  accident,  stretch  out  a  hand  to  save  him  ;  for 
he  firmly  believes  that  such  a  rescued  one  would  infallibly  do 
his  saviour  a  mortal  injury  on  some  future  occasion.  The 
parents  who  rear  up  families  in  boats,  partly  get  over  this 
difficulty  by  having  their  wee  bairns  secured  round  the  waist 
to  the  sampan  by  a  cord,  which  they  regard  as  a  perfectly 
legitimate  article  to  be  manipulated  at  pleasure.  Conse- 
quently, if  a  child  happens  to  be  attached  to  the  end  of  a 
rope  which  is  being  hauled  in  out  of  the  water,  no  breach  of 
etiquette  will  have  been  committed.  Although  they  are  well 
aware  that  in  case  of  accident,  not  one  of  their  own  people 
will  attempt  to  save  them,  these  quaint  folk  delight  to  shoot 
their  crafts  across  the  bows  of  any  passing  steamer,  so  that  they 
may  escape  being  run  down  and  swamped  by  the  closest  pos- 
sible shave;  not,  strange  to  say,  with  the  understandable  object 
of  recovering  damages  for  nervous  shock  ;  but  because  they 
think  it  lucky.  They  played  this  game  on  Chiarini  without, 
however,  consulting  him  in  the  slightest,  when  attempting  to 
land  a  couple  of  performing  elephants  at  Amoy  for  this  well- 
known  circus  proprietor.  The  elephants  being  uneasy,  as 
they  might  well  be,  when  handed  over  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  the  Chinese,  were  chained  down  to  a  barge  which  was  to 
have  taken  them  on  shore  from  a  ship  that  had  brought  them 
into  the  harbour.  Just  at  that  time,  an  outward  -  bound 
steamer,  which  was  leaving  her  moorings,  gave  the  Chinamen 
a  chance  which  they  could  not  resist,  with  the  result  that  the 
barge  got  run  down  and  the  elephants  were  drowned. 

China  gives  us  many  proofs  of  the  strong  love  which  Eng- 
lishmen have  for  racing.  The  island  of  Hong  Kong  is  so 
hilly  that  the  only  place  where  one  can  ride,  except  on  the 
hard  roads,  is  the  Happy  Valley,  which  is  a  level  piece  of 
somewhat  marshy  ground,  surrounded,  except  on  the  side 
facing  the  sea,  by  high  and  wooded  hills.  Around  it  runs  the 
racecourse,  which  is  about  seven  furlongs  in  length.  This 
galloping  track  consists  of  good  turf  and  has  a  slight  rise  and 


1 56  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

fall  on  the  far  side.  The  ground  in  the  centre  is  utilised  for 
cricket  and  other  sports.  Although  there  is  in  Hong  Kong 
hardly  any  riding,  and  the  driving  is  confined  to  man-carts  or 
jinrickshaws  as  they  are  called,  there  is  an  annual  meeting  in 
February,  at  which  there  used  to  be  very  heavy  betting  ; 
wagers  of  ten  thousand  dollars  being  not  unknown.  I  may 
remark  that  the  population  consists  of  about  3000  '  foreigners ' 
(or  white  men)  and  a  garrison  of  one  regiment  of  infantry  and 
some  heavy  artillery.  All  the  races  are  confined  to  China 
ponies,  a  term  that  is  applied  to  the  Mongolians  which  are 
imported  from  Manchuria,  and  which  are  all  geldings.  Prac- 
tically speaking  there  are  no  horses  or  ponies  bred  in  China. 
Almost  all  the  ponies  which  run  in  Hong  Kong  have  their 
permanent  quarters  in  Shanghai,  and  come  down  south  to 
train,  two  or  three  months  before  this  three  days'  meeting 
comes  off.  The  custom  used  to  be,  and  continues  still  for  all 
I  know  to  the  contrary,  for  about  half-a-dozen  of  these  races 
to  be  confined  to  '  subscription  '  griffens  (recently  imported 
ponies  that  have  never  run),  which,  to  the  number  of  thirty 
or  forty,  are  bought,  all  round,  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
each  from  the  Shanghai  Horse  Bazaar  Company,  on  the 
understanding  that  all  these  animals  are  able  to  do  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile,  with  weight  for  height  up,  in  I  minute  40 
seconds  ;  and  are  distributed  by  lot  among  the  subscribers. 
The  weight  for  height  of  an  animal  just  under  14  hands 
(fractions  of  inches  do  not  count  in  China)  would  be  II  st. 
6  Ibs.  Such  a  test,  though  quite  severe  enough  for  China, 
would  be  a  ridiculously  moderate  one  for  English,  Australian, 
Arab,  or  Indian  ponies. 

Sir  Robert  Jardine,  who  subsequently  won  a  large  number 
of  races  in  England,  played  'the  great  game'  in  China,  where 
he  was  a  partner  of  the  house  of  Jardine  Matheson  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago.  He  gave  four  thousand  guineas  for 
Buckstone  just  after  this  horse  won  the  Ascot  Cup  in  1863, 
and  had  him  brought  out  to  run  in  China  ;  for  in  those  days 
the  races  were  open  to  all  horses,  and  there  was  extremely 


Buckstone.  157 

keen  rivalry  between  the  great  houses  of  Dent  and  Jardine. 
Buckstone,  who  was  bound  for  Shanghai,  did  not  go  beyond 
Hong  Kong;  for  soon  after  his  arrival,  he  got  twist  of  the 
intestines  and  died.  Bob  Sherwood,  at  that  time,  used  to 
train  and  ride  for  the  Jardines  in  China.  Since  then  he  has 
become  famous  as  the  trainer  of  St  Gatien,  Florence,  Gold- 
stone  (remembered  by  Mr  Barnard),  Merry  Prince,  who  no 
doubt  lingers  in  the  memory  of  Mr  John  Hammond,  and 
many  others.  As  the  giving  of  thousands  of  pounds  for 
racehorses  was  beyond  the  ability  of  all  except  a  select  few 
in  China,  and  as  the  house  of  Dent  fell  from  its  high  estate, 
horse  racing  gave  way  to  pony  racing,  which  was  within  the 
reach  of  all,  with  the  remarkable  result  that  the  Shanghai 
sportsmen  are  able  to  have  three  days'  racing  of  eight  events 
a  day,  with  large  fields,  and  without  a  single  handicap  or 
selling  race.  The  fact  that  the  secretary  receives  for  each 
meeting  entries  for  about  two  hundred  ponies,  about  three- 
fourths  of  which  are  griffens,  satisfactorily  accounts  for  this 
most  desirable  state  of  things. 

The  mention  of  Buckstone's  name  reminds  me  of  his  great 
rival  Tim  Whiffler,  who  was  trained  by  William  Martin,  with 
whom,  while  we  strolled  over  Newmarket  Heath,  I  have  had, 
more  than  once,  a  talk  about  Tim,  whose  defeat,  with  Sam 
Rogers  up,  by  Buckstone  was  a  terrible  disappointment  to 
the  Fitzroy  House  trainer.  Rogers  did  not  ride  to  orders  ; 
but  lay  out  of  his  ground,  instead  of  making  the  running,  as 
he  ought  to  have  done,  and  as  he  was  told  to  do,  with  this  mar- 
vellous stayer.  Edwin  Martin,  the  trainer,  was  riding  another 
horse  in  the  race,  and,  having  been  early  beaten,  entreated 
Rogers,  as  he  dropt  back,  to  put  on  more  steam  ;  but  all  to  no 
avail.  The  Martins  are  confident  that  the  race  was  '  all 
wrong,'  and  that  Tim  Whiffier  was  much  the  better  horse. 

Mr  J.  D.  Humphreys  is  a  Hong  Kong  sportsman  whom  I 
greatly  admire.  He  loves  to  play  the  great  game,  and  to 
back  his  opinion  in  thousands,  not  of  '  chopped '  Mexican 
dollars ;  but  of  golden  sovereigns.  He  is  a  genuine,  big- 


158  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

hearted  man,  with  any  amount  of  life  and  '  go/  and  he  is  a 
first-rate  loser.  While  at  Hong  Kong,  I  tried  him  somewhat 
highly  in  his  last-mentioned  character.  As  I  wanted  to  show 
my  class  the  easiest  manner  in  which  to  make  a  pony  lie 
down,  I  took  one  belonging  to  Mr  Humphreys  ;  selected  a 
soft  piece  of  deep  sand  on  which  to  conduct  the  experiment  ; 
tied  up  one  foreleg  ;  pulled  his  head  gently  round  to  the  other 
side  ;  and  down  he  went  without  a  struggle,  never  to  get  up 
again  ;  for  he  happened  in  some  mysterious  way  to  break  his 
back.  Mr  Humphreys  took  the  accident  in  as  good  part,  as 
if  he  regarded  it  as  a  portion  of  the  programme.  I  may 
mention  that  this  is  the  only  accident  I  have  ever  had  in  mak- 
ing a  horse  lie  down. 

Mr  R.  Fraser  Smith,  who,  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventies, 
was  a  well-known  athlete  and  member  of  the  London  Athletic 
Club  and  other  metropolitian  associations,  is  a  prominent 
figure  in  the  society  of  the  '  model  colony/  as  the  editor  of 
Hong  Kong  Telegraph.  He  is  independent,  honest,  and  a 
good  hater ;  consequently,  he  has  become,  from  conducting 
his  own  cases,  the  best  authority  in  the  Far  East  on  the  law 
of  libel.  His  experience  has  been  bought  not  very  cheaply, 
either  in  the  matter  of  fines  or  of  imprisonment  On  one 
occasion  he  was  sentenced,  most  unjustly  I  think,  to  two 
months  for  libelling  Bandmann,  who,  though  a  great  actor, 
had  an  extraordinary  faculty  for  getting  himself  disliked. 
The  last  I  heard  of  him  was  that  he  was  conducting  a  dime 
show  in  New  York.  Mr  Smith  seems  to  have  profited  by  his 
experience  in  the  cinder  path,  for  he  is  the  best  trainer  of 
ponies  in  Hong  Kong. 

A  run  of  a  day  and  a  half  by  steamer  took  us  to  Amoy, 
which  in  old  days  was  a  favourite  place  of  resort  for  Chinese 
pirates,  who  now  happily  confine  their  raids  to  the  junks  of 
their  own  countrymen  ;  and  three  days  more  brought  us  into 
the  mouth  of  the  Yangtse,  which  carries  into  the  ocean  a 
larger  volume  of  water  than  any  other  river  of  the  Old  World. 

During  the  summer  it  is   navigable  for  more  than   1000 


Shanghai.  159 

miles  by  ships  of  any  tonnage.  After  steaming  up  the 
Yangtse  for  nearly  forty  miles,  we  came  to  the  bar  of  the 
Wangpoo  or  Shanghai  river,  where  we  waited  a  few  hours  for 
the  tide.  Near  at  hand,  we  saw  the  Red  Buoy,  the  famous 
point  from  which  the  tea  clippers  used  to  start  for  their 
annual  race  to  the  London  docks.  That  was  the  great  sport- 
ing event  of  the  year  ;  but  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past.  Then, 
the  winner  got  from  £$  to  £6  a  ton,  with  no  bill  of  coals,  and 
no  wear  and  tear  to  machinery.  Steamers,  at  the  time  of  my 
visit,  were  taking  tea  from  Hankow  at  a  pound  a  ton,  which 
is  twelve  shillings  net,  after  deducting  eight  shillings  a  ton  for 
Suez  Canal  dues  ;  that  is,  at  the  rate  of  about  a  shilling  a  ton  per 
thousand  miles.  Hankow,  I  may  explain,  is  nearly  700  miles 
up  the  Yangtse  river.  It  is  the  great  centre  of  the  tea  trade, 
and  is  the  place  at  which  the  tea  steamers  take  in  their  cargoes 
of  leaf.  Shanghai  is  about  twelve  miles  above  the  bar  at 
Woosung.  The  chief  business  part  of  Shanghai  consists  of  a 
line  of  fine  buildings  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  mile  long,  on 
the  left  bank  of  the  Wangpoo.  A  broad  and  well-kept  road, 
called  the  Bund,  runs  between  the  line  of  houses  and  the 
river,  which  is  well  supplied  with  jetties  and  quays.  The 
Bund  forms  the  front  of  the  English  settlement,  which  occu- 
pies about  a  square  mile  of  ground.  The  Soochow  Creek, 
which  is  about  100  yards  broad,  is  on  the  left  of  the  Bund, 
and  separates  the  English  and  American  concessions  from 
each  other.  The  Yang  King  Pang,  which  is  a  broad  ditch, 
performs  a  like  office  on  the  right,  for  the  French  and  English 
possessions.  One  of  the  principal  streets  in  the  Ma  Loo 
(Horse  Road),  which  begins  about  the  centre  of  the  Bund, 
and  which  extends  to  the  rear,  at  right  angles  to  the  Bund, 
for  a  mile,  up  to  the  bridge  over  the  Defence  Creek,  after 
crossing  which  we  see  the  racecourse  on  our  left  and  a  row  of 
detached  villas  on  our  right.  After  passing  the  entrance  to 
the  enclosure  of  the  Grand  Stand, 'we  find  both  sides  of  the 
road  occupied  by  charmingly-built  country  houses,  with  taste- 
fully laid-out  grounds  and  gardens  ;  until,  on  going  for  about 


1 60  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

a  mile  further,  we  reach  the  Bubbling  Well,  which  receives  its 
name  from  the  fact  of  its  being  in  a  constant,  though  mild 
state  of  effervescence.  There  the  road  branches  off  to  the 
right  and  left ;  to  return  to  the  city,  by  the  former ;  to  be 
lost  to  view  in  the  distance  among  well-tilled  fields,  by  the 
latter  route.  Riding  excursions  and  paper  chasing  are  ex- 
tensively indulged  in  during  the  cold  weather  in  the  open 
country. 

We  were  not  longer  in  Shanghai  than  three  hours  before 
Mr  Barnes  Dallas,  the  very  courteous  secretary  of  the 
Shanghai  Turf  Club,  called  on  us,  and,  in  the  name  of  .his 
club,  hoped  I  would  consider  myself  an  honorary  member, 
and  gave  us  invitations  to  the  sumptuous  luncheons  which 
were  to  be  prepared  for  the  stewards  and  their  friends  at  the 
races  that  were  about  to  come  off.  We  felt  deeply  touched 
by  the  kindness  of  these  gentlemen,  and  by  the  generous  and 
friendly  manner  in  which  they  received  us.  Our  experience 
of  the  Shanghai  folk,  during  our  month's  stay  among  them, 
was  that  they  were  the  most  hospitable  and  charming  people 
we  have  ever  met.  They  all  own  ponies,  and  nearly  all  race. 
Their  Mongolian  ponies  are  reared  under  very  rough  condi- 
tions, in  their  native  steppes,  having  frequently,  during  the 
long  winter  of  that  Siberian  climate,  to  scrape  a\vay  the 
snow  with  their  feet  in  order  to  get  a  mouthful  of  grass.  Like 
Himalayan  and  Tibet  ponies,  they  show  they  are  wild  and  not 
domestic  animals,  by,  when  first  brought  down,  their  habit 
of  shying.  I  have  frequently  noticed  this  vice  in  Hill  ponies 
when  riding  through  the  Himalayas  on  shooting  excursions  ; 
and  was  much  impressed  by  the  fact  that,  although  my  mount 
might  plunge  forward,  or  pirouette  round  without  the  slightest 
warning,  at  the  sight  of  a  falling  leaf  or  rolling  stone;  the 
abrupt  movement  was  always  made  with  due  regard  to  the 
animal's  personal  safety ;  and  was  quite  different  from  the 
dangerous  shy  caused  by  defective  sight,  or  the  light-hearted 
one  due  to  '  beans.'  In  fact,  it  was  the  instinctive  action  of  a 
wild  animal  whose  only  means  of  security  from  foes,  land-slips, 


China  Ponies.  1 6 1 

and  other  dangers,  is  flight,  As  the  Manchu  Tartars  do  not 
catch  them  until  they  think  they  are  fit  for  hard  work,  they  are, 
when  first  taken  in  hand,  extremely  impatient  of  control  (a 
term  which  is  more  applicable  to  them  than  that  of  '  vicious '), 
and  are  consequently  difficult  to  break. 

With  their  natural  advantages  of  great  bone  and  muscle, 
and  hardy  bringing-up,  these  Tartar  ponies  are  grand  animals 
for  carrying  weight,  going  long  distances,  and  enduring  hard- 
ships in  a  cold  climate.  I  can  see  no  difference  between 
them,  as  far  as  type  is  concerned,  and  the  ponies  of  the 
Himalayas,  Tibet,  and  Yarkund.  I  remember,  many  years 
ago  at  Nainee  Tal,  winning  flat  and  hurdle  races  on  a  Bhootiah 
pony,  called  Trooper,  who  was  the  'dead  image'  of  Teen 
Kwang  (the  Eclipse  of  the  Celestial  Empire),  and  who  I  feel 
certain  was  quite  as  good  for  his  size.  These  Mongolians 
have,  of  course,  no  pretensions  to  racing  form ;  neither  have 
the  Arab  horses  about  which  Bombay  sportsmen  are  en- 
thusiastic, if  we  are  to  judge  them  by  a  Newmarket,  or  even 
an  Alexandra  Park  standard.  Yet  the  China  and  Bombay 
men  get  large  fields,  close  finishes,  and  excellent  sport,  all  of 
which  most  desirable  objects  would  have  to  be  sacrificed,  were 
speed  alone  sought  for,  by  throwing  open  the  races  to  faster 
classes  of  animals. 

The  '  griffens '  are  brought  down  in  the  spring  of  the  year 
from  Manchuria  in  large  droves,  thoroughly  in  the  rough,  fresh 
from  their  native  snows,  and  wild  as  the  metaphorical  hawk. 
The  Tartar  importers,  keen  about  their  own  interests,  abstain, 
unless  tempted  beyond  endurance,  from  selling  any  of  their 
crowd  on  their  way  down,  say,  at  Tientsin  ;  and  shortly  after 
arrival  at  Shanghai,  put  the  ponies  up  to  auction,  at  which 
the  likely  ones  fetch  prices  varying  from  about  £10  to  £100. 
Were  trials  given,  and  the  supposed  pick  of  the  basket  taken 
out  before  the  raising  of  the  hammer,  the  remainder  would 
fetch  such  small  prices  that  the  average  would  be  much 
below  that  which  would  be  obtained  by  putting  up  the  entire 
lot.  On  rare  occasions,  some  very  'fancy'  prices  are  given, 

L 


1 62  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

the  highest  of  which,  within  my  knowledge,  has  been  3000  taels 
(which,  at  the  time  of  purchase,  was  equivalent  to  600  guineas!) 
by  Mr  D.  E.  Sassoon  for  the  dun  pony  Harbinger,  an  animal 
that  was  easily  beaten  for  the  Champion  Stakes  by  Mr  Galles1 
Susewind.  In  England  or  in  India,  Harbinger  would  not  have 
been  worth  more  than  £4.0. 

In  the  early  sixties,  when  Shanghai  had  an  English  garri- 
son and  Indian  cavalry  regiments,  there  were  fairly  well-filled 
races  for  Arabs  and  also  for  '  All  Horses,'  which  class  was 
chiefly  represented  by  Australians.  The  Arab  pony  (I  pre- 
sume it  was  he  who  was  meant)  must  have  early  established 
his  claim  to  superiority;  for  I  find  that  the  race  for  the 
Imperial  Cup,  in  April  1864,  was  'for  all  ponies,  Indians 
excluded  ;  Manila  and  Straits  ponies  14  Ibs.  extra.'  Later 
on,  the  two  last-mentioned  classes  were  warned  off  the  course  ; 
and  from  about  1868,  the  races  have  been  confined,  with  the 
best  results,  to  China  ponies.  When  Anglo-Chinese  sports- 
men of  but  local  experience  wax  enthusiastic  over  the  race- 
course performances  of  their  sturdy  Mongolian  favourites,  and 
assert,  as  I  have  heard  them  do,  that  their  animals  could  hold 
their  own,  under  the  weight  they  have  got  to  carry,  and  over 
the  distance  they  are  required  to  run,  with  ponies  of  any  class  ; 
it  is  clear  that  they  have  not  studied  the  history  of  their  own 
turf. 

Mention  of  old  time  racing  in  China  naturally  recalls  to 
my  mind  the  name  of  Mr  R.  Kelly  Maitland,  who,  during  the 
sixties,  was  one  of  the  most  prominent  gentleman  riders  and 
owners  in  the  Celestial  Empire,  and  is  now  a  well-known  owner 
of  racehorses  in  Australia.  He  was  able  to  ride  without 
wasting,  the  wonderfully  nice  weight  for  a  G.  R.,  of  8  st,  or 
even  7  st.  12  Ibs.  As  I  was  coming  one  day  out  of  Jardine, 
Matheson's  place  in  Shanghai,  I  knocked  up  by  accident 
against  a  gentleman  with  grey  hair,  fresh  complexion,  and  a 
pleasant  face.  As  I  stopped  to  apologise,  he  looked  at  me 
and  asked  with  a  smile,  '  Aren't  you  Captain  Hayes  ? '  On 
hearing  my  '  yes/  he  introduced  himself  as  Mr  Bush,  who  had 


Mr  Kelly  Mail  land.  1 63 

been  Mr  Maitland's  business  partner  in  China.  Going  in  the 
same  direction  as  I  was,  and  knowing  that  I  had  been 
acquainted  with  Mr  Maitland  in  India,  he  began  to  talk  about 
his  old  fellow-broker.  '  Maitland  and  I,'  he  said,  '  made  lots 
of  money.  Twenty-five  years  ago  I  could  have  retired  with 
£50,000,  but  nothing  would  do  for  Kelly  but  to  be  a 
millionaire  ;  so  I  too  kept  on.  While  I  was  home  for  a  short 
trip,  he  made  several  heavy  speculations  with  such  disastrous 
results  that  we  both  lost  nearly  all  we  had.  He  went  to  India, 
and  I  got  stuck  in  that  out-of-the-way  spot  Newchwang, 
where  I  shall  be  delighted  to  put  you  up,  if  ever  you  come 
that  way.  It  was  not  Maitland's  fault  that  we  came  to  grief; 
it  was  only  his  ambition.  Ah !  you  should  have  seen  him  in 
those  days.  What  a  swell  he  was !  How  he  used  to  make 
the  money  fly!  During  all  the  years  we  were  together,  I 
always  found  him  "  straight." '  And  then  the  true-hearted, 
kind  fellow  gave  me  a  clasp  of  the  hand,  a  cheery  nod,  and 
walked  off  with  as  springy  a  step  and  as  gay  an  air,  as  he  no 
doubt  had,  while  Kelly  was  manufacturing  ducks  and  drakes 
out  of  that  half  million  dollars. 

Subsequently  Mr  Bush  told  me  the  following  incident, 
which  has  been  so  unfairly  misrepresented  to  Mr  Maitland's 
detriment,  that  I  am  glad  of  this  opportunity  of  giving  its 
correct  version. 

Mr  Maitland  went  to  the  Hong  Kong  races  from  Shanghai 
in  1863,  with  a  lot  of  ponies,  and  was  so  successful  that  he 
and  his  party  won  about  £10,000.  Being  unable  to  get  the 
better  of  the  little  man  in  a  fair  game,  some  of  the  losers 
determined  to  vent  their  spite  on  him  by  means  which  were 
not  above  board.  Seeing  that  Maitland  had  been  enjoying  the 
privileges  of  a  visitor  at  the  Hong  Kong  Club,  his  enemies  man- 
aged to  get  a  rule  passed,  apparently,  only  on  general  grounds, 
that  a  visitor  could  not  be  an  honorary  member  for  longer 
than  six  weeks,  and  that,  if  he  desired  to  frequent  the  club 
after  that  period,  he  should  be  put  up  and  balloted  for  in  the 
usual  manner.  When  Maitland's  time  of  honorary  member- 


164  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

ship  was  finished,  his  friends  suspecting  nothing  and  conse- 
quently taking  no  precautions,  allowed  him  to  be  balloted  for, 
as,  so  they  thought,  a  mere  matter  of  form,  with  the  astound- 
ing result  to  them,  that  he  was  blackballed.  Had  his  proposer 
and  seconder  any  idea  that  the  ballot  would  have  gone  against 
him,  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  they  would  have  got  a 
sufficient  number  of  favourable  votes  to  have  had  him  elected. 
In  any  case,  they  could  have  withdrawn  his  name  and  have 
saved  him  and  themselves  from  the  slight  caused  by  their 
inadvertence.  Mr  Bush  and  other  gentlemen  assured  me  that 
this  was  the  only  approach  to  any  *  unpleasantness '  ever  con- 
nected with  Mr  Maitland  during  his  long  career  on  the  China 
turf.  I  may  mention  that  he  still  retains  the  privilege  of 
resuming  his  membership  of  the  Shanghai  Club,  whenever  he 
chooses  to  return. 

Mr  Maitland  arrived  in  Calcutta  from  China  with  a  couple 
of  horses  about  the  year  1870,  and  he  continued  to  hold  his 
own  at  'the  great  game'  with  the  best  of  them  till  1880,  when 
he  departed  for  Australia.  He  was  a  very  peppery  little 
fellow,  and  took  no  trouble  to  conciliate  the  Indian  brass  gods 
by  bowing  down  before  them.  Consequently,  he  was  most 
unjustly  treated  on  several  occasions  by  the  jacks  in  office. 
Although  I  took  his  part  more  than  once,  I  had  no  sympathy 
for  him  in  his  rows ;  for  by  the  employment  of  a  very  small 
amount  of  tact  he  might  have  had  the  said  officials  his 
devoted  friends  instead  of  his  bitter  enemies.  If  these  big- 
wigs were  asses  for  acting  the  part  of  piqued  children,  Mr 
Maitland  was  a  still  greater  donkey  for  annoying  them, 
especially  as  his  part  of  the  show  was  to  make 
money. 

At  the  races  in  China,  the  starting  is  horrible  ;  because, 
as  all  the  riders  are  amateurs,  the  club  official  does  not  like  to 
assert  his  authority.  This  of  course  is  utterly  wrong.  The 
story  is  told  of  Kelly  Maitland  going  on  at  the  start  in  a 
race  in  Australia,  with  some  antics  which  he  had,  no  doubt, 
often  practised  at  Shanghai  and  Hong  Kong.  Mr  Watson, 


Chinese  Women.  165 

who  held  the  flag,  did  not  at  all  approve  of  Kelly  attempting 
*  to  jump  off  in  front/  or  to  come  up  from  behind  at  a  gallop 
while  the  others  were  walking.  'What  are  you  doing,  Mr 
Maitland  ? '  asked  the  gentleman  from  Carlow.  '  I  can't  hold 
my  horse,  sir/  was  the  reply.  '  Then  I'll  fine  you  £10  for  bring- 
ing a  horse  to  me  which  you  cannot  hold/  was  the  starter's 
retort,  which  had  an  instantaneously  good  effect  on  Mr  Mait- 
land's  mount.  I  may  remark  that  under  the  Australian  rules 
of  racing,  the  starter  has  the  summary  power  to  fine  up  to  £50 
for  disobedience  (intentional  or  otherwise)  at  the  post.  This, 
to  my  thinking,  is  a  most  excellent  ordinance. 

The  North  China  custom  of  women  having  small  feet, 
causes  much  inconvenience  to  foreigners  when  out  for  a  drive ; 
for  these  crippled  ladies,  with  the  combined  'perversity  of 
their  race  and  sex,  always  select  their  time  of  crossing  a 
street,  at  the  moment  when  a  trap  is  approaching  There  is 
then  no  alternative  but  to  pull  up  sharp  and  wait  until  Mrs 
or  Miss  Ah  Sin  has  finished  rocking  and  floundering  about 
on  her  heels,  during  her  devious  passage  across  the  road. 
These  poor  slaves  of  fashion  have  their  feet  so  crumpled  up 
and  atrophied  that,  in  extreme  cases,  they  can  walk  only  by 
means  of  the  high  heels  of  their  shoes,  which  they  use  as 
stilts.  This  painful  and  disgusting  sight  naturally  suggests 
the  thought  that  their  legs  must  be  in  a  miserably  wasted 
condition.  And  yet  there  are  Englishmen  who  marry — yes, 
actually  marry — these  wretched  cripples.  The  distortion  in 
question  is  produced  by  tight  bandaging  at  an  early  age  ;  the 
object  being  to  render  the  leg  as  straight  as  possible  from  the 
knee  to  the  toes  ;  so  that  the  foot  assumes  a  near  approach 
to  that  of  a  goat.  This  plastic  operation  may  be  seen  in  all 
degrees.  The  stilted  lady  whom  I  have  already  mentioned, 
may  take  her  seat  (goodness  knows  she  wants  one  !)  at  the 
top  of  the  class.  Others,  not  quite  so  deformed,  get  their 
toes  on  the  ground.  My  eyes,  ever  ready  to  note  a  horsey 
'  point/  fell  one  day  on  the  foot  of  a  Chinese  woman ;  and, 
to  my  astonishment,  I  saw  in  it  the  principle  of  a  'rocker' 


1 6 6  A mong  Men  and  Ho rses. 

shoe,  with  which  English  veterinary  surgeons  try  to  alleviate 
the  pain  of  laminitis,  in  full  working  order  at  the  end  of  a 
female  leg.  Its  ground  surface,  like  that  of  its  iron  counter- 
part, was  curved,  so  that  the  sufferer  could  keep  constantly 
changing  the  seat  of  pain. 

The  fact  of  there  being  a  Government  House  in  Hong 
Kong,  causes,  like  in  Calcutta,  a  line  of  social  demarcation  to 
be  drawn  between  retail  and  wholesale  tradesmen.  In 
Shanghai,  there  is  no  Governor  to  set  the  exiles  by  the  ears  ; 
consequently  the  white  men  of  the  '  Model  Settlement '  live  in 
harmony  and  social  equality.  In  fact,  I  never  met  a  body  of 
men  who  pulled  so  well  together,  and  were  so  helpful  to  each 
other.  For  instance,  there  is  that  genial  companion  and  good 
sportsman,  Tom  Fourinhand,  who  went  home  some  years  ago 
to  have  a  twelve  months'  holiday,  hunting  in  the  shires,  rac- 
ing during  the  summer,  and  doing  himself  well,  at  the  rate  of 
£20  a  day.  ,When  he  returned  full  of  health  and  spirits,  he 
found  that  his  father-in-law  and  partner  had,  during  his 
absence,  burst  up  the  firm  in  a  vain  attempt  to  improve  the 
breed  of  herrings  on  the  China  coast.  Did  Tom  set  his  face 
as  a  flint,  and  start  afresh  as  a  junior  clerk,  with  the  un- 
daunted purpose  in  his  heart  of  becoming  the  head  of  the 
house  before  he  was  two  hundred  years  of  age  ?  Or  did  he 
sit  down,  wring  his  hands,  and  drink  himself  slowly  but 
pleasantly  to  death  ?  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other  alterna- 
tive did  he  accept ;  but  like  a  proper  member  of  the  Hong 
(Anglice,  place)  he  went  to  the  Club  at  the  orthodox  hour  of 
twelve  to  have  a  cocktail  with  one,  a  '  pint '  with  another,  and 
so  on,  until  he  had  all  his  old  pals  around  him.  They,  being 
practical  men,  at  once  set  their  remaining  wits  to  work  in  the 
endeavour  to  help  their  old  friend,  and,  before  the  merry 
meeting  broke  up,  they  had  settled  that  he  was  to  be  made 
official  handicapper  of  the  Race  Club,  the  programmes  of  which 
never  contain  a  weight-alloted  race,  on  a  stipend  that  now 
keeps  him  going  at  a  very  fair  rate  of  speed.  Besides  enjoy- 
ing this  sinecure,  Tom  does  a  bit  of  brokering,  a  business 


Shanghai.  167 

which  has  a  peculiar  meaning  of  its  own  in  China.  There, 
everything  has  to  be  bought  through  a  supposititious  broker, 
who  gets  a  percentage  in  right  of  his  intermediate  position. 
That  being  the  case,  the  good,  though  needy  fellows,  are 
naturally  selected  as  the  recipients.  Thus,  if  I  wanted  to 
buy  1000  shares  of  the  Lie  Foo  gold  mines,  I  would  go  to  the 
agent  of  the  company  and  state  my  wants.  When  we  had 
agreed  as  to  the  price,  he  would  ask  :  '  To  whom  shall  I  credit 
the  brokerage  ? '  I  would  then  think  of  the  friend  of  mine 
who  wanted  it  most,  and  would,  for  instance,  reply :  *  Put  it 
down  to  Dick  Finisher ;  he  had  a  bad  time  during  the  last 
races,  and  wants  a  lift.' 

Although  the  China  limit  of  height  is  just  under  15  hands, 
the  best  ponies  for  racing  purposes  are  under  1 3  hands~3  inches. 
For  Arab  horses,  the  limit  at  which  height  ceases  to  be  useful, 
is  about  14  hands  2  inches  ;  and  for  English  racehorses  about 
1 6  hands.  By  this  I  mean  that,  generally  speaking,  the  fact 
of  horses  exceeding  these  respective  heights  is  no  advantage 
to  them  from  a  galloping  point  of  view. 

The  Shanghai  race  stand  is  a  fine  large  building,  which  is 
provided  with  offices  and  a  coffee-room  capable  of  holding 
over  a  hundred  people,  in  which  the  members  of  the  Race  Club 
meet  every  morning  during  the  training  season,  to  talk,  read 
the  papers,  and  refresh  themselves.  The  Race  Club  is  a  very 
flourishing  institution  to  which  everyone  interested  in  horses 
is  given  ready  admission  without  any  ridiculous  class  distinc- 
tions being  made.  Shopkeepers,  tradesmen  and  merchant 
princes  meet  there  during  life  on  the  same  terms  of  equality  on 
the  turf,  as  they  will  do  under  it,  when  they  die.  The  Club 
owns  all  the  ground  occupied  by  the  racecourse,  which  is 
about  i£  miles  in  length,  and  the  extensive  enclosures  ;  so  it 
keeps  this  fine  breathing  space  clear  from  all  building  en- 
croachments. Although  the  ground  is  immensely  valuable, 
it  could  ill  be  spared  ;  for  it  is  a  potent  means  for  promoting 
health  and  sport,  especially,  as  members  only  are  allowed  to 
ride.  This  busy  commercial  community  marks  the  import- 


i68  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

ance  it  attaches  to  these  considerations,  by  keeping,  as  bank 
holidays,  the  days  upon  which  the  races  are  held. 

The  stand  is  the  great  early  morning  rendezvous  for  the 
local  sportsmen,  all  of  whom  are  devotees  of  the  '  time  test/ 
During  the  training  season,  on  the  two  days  a  week  on  which 
the  course  is  thrown  open  for  work,  all  the  Shanghai  racing 
men  crowd  against  the  rails  on  the  inside  of  the  course,  close 
to  the  winning  post,  with  centre  second  watches  of  most 
elaborate  construction,  to  take  the  time  of  the  various  ponies. 
The  course,  I  may  mention,  is  as  flat  as  a  billiard  table,  and 
each  furlong  on  it  is  marked  by  an  upright  post.  These 
gentlemen  think  that  they  have  their  task  of  '  spotting 
winners '  immensely  simplified  by  the  adoption  of  the  maxim 
that  weight  makes  no  difference  to  a  China  pony  ;  and  that 
all  they  have  to  do  in  order  to  ascertain  the  form  of  an 
animal  is  to  take  his  time,  which  an  onlooker  can  do  just  as 
accurately  as  the  owner.  My  dislike  to  this  eternal  clock- 
ing is  that  its  arguments  are  so  plausible  that  they  fill  the 
mind  of  the  hearer  thereof,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  far  more 
valuable  lessons  to  be  learned  from  the  study  of  the  animal's 
action  and  general  style  of  going.  Although  there  are  nearly 
1000  ponies  in  the  Settlement,  there  is  not  a  veterinary 
surgeon  in  the  place.  Had  there  been  a  demand  for  profes- 
sional advice,  the  want  no  doubt  would  have  been  supplied. 
As  a  man  can  buy  there  a  serviceable  pony  for  about  ;£io,  he 
will,  in  the  event  of  the  animal  going  wrong,  naturally  prefer 
to  sell  it  for  what  it  will  fetch  and  buy  another  at  an  equally 
moderate  price,  than  to  go  to  the  delay  and  expense  of  hav- 
ing it  treated  by  a  veterinary  surgeon.  Members  of  my 
profession  can  expect  good  fees  only  in  places  where  high 
prices  are  paid  for  horses. 

The  races,  which  are  well  filled  and  spiritedly  contested,, 
are  the  great  social  event  of  the  year.  It  did  us  good  to  be 
among  people  who  were  as  enthusiastic  about  our  favourite 
subject,  as  are  the  Shanghai  ladies  and  gentlemen. 

The  horsebreaking  class  which  I  held  close  to  the  race- 


Chinese  Grooms.  169 

course,  was  largely  attended,  especially  as  I  made  it  known 
that  my  wife  would  ride  any  pony  brought  to  us.  Before 
our  visit,  the  English  residents  had  an  idea  that  obstreperous 
China  ponies,  of  which  there  were  many,  could  be  handled 
only  by  Chinamen.  The  mafoos  (native  grooms),  who  re- 
gularly 'did  josy  for  my  destruction,  were  naturally  the  chief 
originators  of  this  absurd  opinion.  If  an  owner  wanted  to 
inspect  his  pony's  feet,  the  mafoo  promptly  applied  some 
appropriate  devilment  which  made  the  animal  kick  and  bite 
so  badly  as  to  prevent  the  near  approach  of  the  so-called 
proprietor.  If  the  white  man  was  persevering  enough  to  order 
Mr  Pigtail  to  '  catchee  this  side  leg,'  Mr  John  would  instantly 
reply :  '  No  can  catchee.'  Thus,  in  the  large  majority  of 
cases,  the  mafoo  groomed  the  pony  just  as  much,  or  as  little, 
as  he  liked  ;  being  without  fear  of  inspection.  Under  such 
a  state  of  things,  it  was  natural  to  find  a  great  number  of 
reputed  man-eaters  and  demons  of  ponies,  whose  supposed 
foibles  made  stable  work  more  of  a  pleasure  than  a  toil  to 
the  attendant  mafoos.  I  had  the  satisfaction  of  demonstrat- 
ing to  the  residents  of  Shanghai,  Hong  Kong  and  Tientsin, 
that  the  China  pony  had  not  yet  been  bred,  which  a  white 
man  could  not  handle,  and  an  English  lady  could  not  ride, 
with  safety.  My  success  in  these  experiments  with  vicious 
biters,  was  greatly  enhanced  by  the  adoption  of  the  very 
simple  plan  of  opening  a  biter's  mouth  by  means  of  a  stick 
gently  insinuated  between  the  lips,  and  not  by  the  fingers. 

The  word  jos,  which  I  used  in  the  preceding  paragraph, 
means  God ;  and  '  doing  jos]  worshipping  God.  If  we  are 
to  believe  the  old  saying  that  man  makes  God  in  his  own 
image,  what  dolts  Chinamen  must  be  !  They  look  upon  jos 
as  a  simpleton  that  can  be  beguiled  by  the  most  transparent 
artifices  ;  so,  when  they  want  to  propitiate  him,  they  are 
wont  to  present  unto  .him  imitation  bricks  of  silver,  made 
of  paper.  Although  these  cardboard  structures  are  as  little 
like  the  real  article  as  the  bit  of  tin  on  the  top  of  the  cork 
of  a  soda-water  bottle  is  to  a  silver  sixpence,  confiding  jos 


1 70  Among-  Men  and  Horses. 

is  supposed  to  be  thoroughly  taken  in,  and  proportionately 
delighted  with  these  offerings. 

The  breaking  I  had  to  do  in  China  was  almost  entirely 
for  saddle,  as  there  are  very  few  carriages  ;  the  well-to-do 
classes  affecting  the  jinrickshaw,  the  poorer  people  the  wheel- 
barrow. When  I  first  saw  a  'rickshaw,  I  vowed  that  I  would 
never  get  into  this  Eastern  bath-chair.  But  it  was  always  at 
hand,  and  appeared  so  convenient,  that  my  scruples  gradually 
gave  way,  and  I  at  last  consented  to  be  pulled  along  in  this 
go-cart.  At  Simla,  it  takes  four  men  to  trot  along  on  level 
ground,  with  a  'ricksaw  containing  one  lady.  At  Colombo, 
a  single  man  undertakes  the  feat ;  but  cannot  keep  up  the 
accelerated  gait  beyond  two  hundred  yards,  without  breaking 
into  a  walk.  At  Singapore,  the  'rickshaw  coolies  never  think 
of  walking,  unless  against  a  strong  wind.  At  Shanghai,  they 
go  half  as  fast  again  as  at  the  Straits,  and  think  nothing  of 
a  double  load.  In  Japan,  which  is  the  home  of  this  man-cart, 
the  coolies  step  out  like  match  trotters,  and  instead,  as  at 
other  places,  of  confining  their  runs  to  borough  limits,  they 
think  nothing  of  drawing,  in  tandem,  a  200  Ib.  man,  50  miles 
up  hill  and  down  dale  in  a  day.  Although  pedestrianism 
is  not  cultivated  in  China,  either  as  a  sport  or  as  a  means  of 
keeping  in  good  health  ;  the  indigenous  coolie  quickly  learned 
the  'rickshaw  business  from  the  Japs.  At  first  the  unac- 
customed and  ill-regulated  exercise  manifested  its  bad  effects 
on  the  majority  of  its  takers  by  causing  diseases  of  the  heart, 
lungs  and  other  internal  organs,  which  were  fatal  to  many. 
On  hearing  this  fact,  the  natural  query  would  be  :  '  Why  did 
the  coolie  work  so  hard  ? '  The  answer  is,  that  if  the  'rick- 
shaw man  did  not  keep  running  at  a  fair  pace  the  entire 
journey,  the  '  foreigner,'  as  a  rule,  would  get  out  and  walk, 
or  call  another  conveyance ;  and  the  tardy  one  would  be 
left  lamenting  his  lost  fare.  Besides  this,  the  writings  of 
Confucius  contained  no  information  about  athletic  training ; 
so  the  almond-eyed  ones  committed  many  errors,  and  steadily 
smoked  opium.  I  have  been  told  that  this  rapid  breaking 


Gambling  in  China.  171 

down  was,  years  ago,  specially  noticeable  among  the  'rick- 
shaw men  who  used  to  occupy  the  rank  in  front  of  the  Club ; 
for  the  members  of  that  institution  stimulated  record  break- 
ing by  liberal  payment,  to  a  much  greater  extent  than  did 
the  more  sedate  frequenters  of  other  parts  of  the  town.  At 
this  club  work,  a  coolie,  in  the  early  days,  rarely  lasted  more 
than  six  months.  Since  then,  new  pigtail  generations,  trained 
on  improved  principles  from  their  youth  upwards,  have  ap- 
peared, and  the  mortality  from  this  special  cause  has  greatly 
decreased.  The  distressed  breathing,  from  heart  disease,  of 
some  of  these  coolies  is  most  painful  to  hear. 

The  Chinaman  is  nothing,  if  not  a  gambler.  In  the  streets, 
the  peripatetic  vendor  of  various  kinds  of  food  carries  in  his 
hand  a  cylindrical  wooden  box  about  nine  inches  long,  three 
inches  in  diameter,  and  open  at  one  end,  out  of  which  project 
the  tops  of  about  twenty  thin  sticks  that  look  like  knitting 
needles.  During  all  his  spare  moments,  he  shakes  them 
up  and  down  in  the  box,  and  thus  produces  a  rattling  sound 
which  can  be  heard  at  some  distance  off.  As  the  click  of 
the  ivory  balls  is  to  the  billiard  player,  the  rattle  of  dice  to 
the  lover  of  hazard,  and  the  roar  of  the  bookmaker  to  the 
punter,  so  is  the  tinkle  of  the  ends  of  the  sticks  on  the  bottom 
of  the  bamboo  box  to  the  hungry  Chinaman,  who,  on  de- 
positing the  sum  of  one  cash  (about  the  tenth  part  of  a  farthing) 
in  the  hands  of  the  banker,  has  the  privilege  of  drawing  out 
of  the  box,  three  sticks,  on  the  outside  of  which,  near  the 
lower  end,  are  pips  somewhat  like  those  on  dominoes.  If 
they  contain  a  winning  number,  the  investor  gets  his  cake, 
piece  of  pig,  morsel  of  dog,  or  other  dainty.  If  he  loses,  he  puts 
down  another  cash,  and  so  on,  until  he  obtains  the  object  of 
his  desire,  or  gets  '  broke ' ;  just  as  we  do  when  we  try  to 
'  pick '  a  winner. 

After  a  most  enjoyable  stay  for  nearly  a  month  in 
Shanghai,  we  went  to  Tientsin,  where  I  had  an  invitation 
to  teach  a  class  the  art  of  giving  horses  good  manners  and 
snaffle  mouths.  The  steamers  which  ply  between  Shanghai 


172  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

and  Tientsin  are  expensive,  but  the  food  is  good  and  the 
liquor  unstinted.  The  captains  do  the  catering  and  are  paid 
at  the  rate  of  three  dollars  a  day  for  every  passenger  by  the 
company.  As  they  provide  brandies  and  sodas  all  day  long, 
beer  and  claret  during  meals,  and  excellent  port  wine  after 
dinner,  as  did  that  charming  skipper  of  the  Wuchang;  the  won- 
der is  how  they  can  possibly  afford  to  be  so  liberal.  With  the 
best  of  free  drinks,  any  amount  of  ice,  delicious  fresh  butter, 
new  milk,  fish,  prawns,  vegetables,  fruit,  and  no  better  meat 
out  of  England,  combined  with  admirable  cooking  and  smart 
attendance,  I  had  on  the  Wuchang,  the  best  four  days  I 
have  ever  spent  on  board  ship.  At  the  Taku  Forts,  the 
steamer  enters  the  narrow  Pekin  river,  up  which  it  goes  for 
fifty  miles  to  Tientsin,  which  is  a  small,  low-lying  English 
settlement,  full  of  good  sportsmen.  We  arrived  just  in  time 
for  the  races,  which  were  well  supported.  Among  the  local 
jockeys,  two  German  gentlemen,  Messrs  Kruger  and  Lehmann, 
were  the  most  distinguished.  The  natural  sociableness  of 
the  residents  of  Tientsin  is  no  doubt  increased  by  its  isolated 
position,  and  by  the  fact  that,  owing  to  the  freezing  up  of 
the  river,  business  is  suspended  for  nearly  three  months, 
which  time  is  given  up  to  poker,  dancing,  theatricals  and 
general  festivity.  To  show  that  they  have  no  '  nonsense ' 
about  them,  I  may  mention  that  at  the  race  ball  we  had  the 
pleasure  of  meeting  a  real  princess,  a  couple  of  live  barons, 
several  freiherren,  and  the  young  man  who,  that  morning,  sold 
me  a  hat,  a  pair  of  boots  and  a  bundle  of  cigars  in  the  local 
'  store.'  Among  many  other  good  sportsmen  at  Tientsin, 
we  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Dr  Irving,  Mr  Detring, 
Mr  Michie,  Mr  Fitz  Henry  and  Captain  Axen  von  Brixen. 

During  our  stay  at  Tientsin,  I  had  many  a  discussion  on 
the  subject  of  Fequitation  savante  with  two  of  its  learned 
exponents,  Captain  Lehmann,  who  is  an  old  pupil  of  Hol- 
leufer  of  Hanover,  and  Mr  G.  A.  Butler,  the  late  private 
secretary  to  the  Marquis  of  Tseng,  the  former  Chinese 
Ambassador  in  England.  I  tried  my  best  to  profit  by  their 


A  Terrible  Night.  173 

instruction ;  but  being  incapable  of  learning  any  art  except 
by  answers  to  my  constant  '  why  ? '  I  did  not  make  much 
progress.  The  explanations  of  the  professors  of  the  high 
school  are  so  loaded  with  arbitrary  and  obscure  terms,  that 
I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the  large  majority  of  them 
are  empirics — clever,  I  admit,  but  still  followers  of  routine 
and  not  of  reasoned-out  principles.  Mr  Butler,  who  was  an 
American  'gentleman  of  colour/  was  a  man  of  rare  talent 
and  as  discreet  as  William  the  Silent.  He  had  need  to  be  ; 
for  he  had  plunged  deeply  into  Chinese  politics.  During  the 
Franco-Chinese  War,  having  negotiated  for  his  masters  a  loan 
of  several  million  dollars,  he  had,  on  duty  connected  with  this 
matter,  to  proceed  one  night  in  a  steam-launch  down  the  Min 
River,  which  was  full  of  torpedoes  that  had  been  placed  in 
carefully-concealed  positions  to  obstruct  the  navigation.  As 
the  most  rapid  possible  dispatch  was  the  order,  he  gave  the 
word,  *  Steam  ahead  full  speed ' ;  trusting  solely  to  luck  to 
carry  him  safely  through  the  terrible  dangers  that  lay  in 
his  path.  Thinking  that  the  bow  would  be  the  first  part 
of  the  boat  which  would  strike  any  torpedo,  he  took  his  seat 
on  the  extreme  end  of  the  stern,  in  the  hope  that  if  an 
explosion  did  occur,  he  might  contrive  to  tumble  alive  into 
the  water,  where  he  would  have  had  to  trust  to  the  clemency 
of  the  sharks  and  crocodiles  to  let  him  swim  to  land.  The 
mental  agony  which  he  endured  through  that  night  of  anxiety, 
was  trebled  by  the  fact  that  he  was  suffering  at  the  time  from 
a  severe  attack  of  fever.  Morning,  however,  broke  without 
an  accident  having  occurred,  and  the  traveller  arrived  in  due 
course,  safe  at  his  destination.  After  the  conclusion  of  the 
war,  he  happened  by  chance  to  be  again  on  the  Min  River, 
at  a  time  when  the  Chinese  were  taking  up  the  torpedoes. 
When  these  machines  were  all  landed,  they  were  opened  to 
see  the  condition  of  their  contents,  which  were  found  to  be 
powdered  coal,  instead  of  gunpowder.  The  official  who  had 
them  filled,  evidently  understood  the  advantage  which  his 
position  gave  him  to  make  money. 


174  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

One  day,  when  at  Tientsin,  my  wife  met  with  a  bad  acci- 
dent, by  the  pony  which  she  was  riding,  rearing  up,  coming 
over,  and  then  kicking  her  repeatedly  while  she  was  on  the 
ground.  During  this  performance,  the  animal's  mafoo  and  a 
comrade  of  his  looked  on,  without  making  the  slightest  at- 
tempt to  save  her,  which  they  might  easily  have  done  by 
catching  the  pony,  and  turning  him  round.  They  conscien- 
tiously refrained  from  interfering  with,  what  they  were  pleased 
to  term,  'jos  pidgin.'  The  accident  made  us  relinquish  the 
idea  of  going  to  Pekin,  which  was  only  about  fifty  miles 
distant ;  and  we  decided  to  spend  our  holidays  in  Japan. 
While  staying  in  Tientsin,  I  became  acquainted  with  a  funny 
custom  of  the  Chinese,  by  hearing,  on  the  first  night  of  our 
arrival,  outside  our  window,  a  noise  as  if  someone  were  ringing 
a  cracked  bell,  or  beating  a  tin  can.  As  it  soon  faded  away 
in  the  distance,  I  did  not  mind  it  at  first,  and  being  tired,  I 
had  just  dropped  off  into  a  dose,  when  the  same  inharmonious 
tinkle,  tinkle,  came  nearer  and  nearer.  I  bore  with  it  for  a 
time ;  but  was  at  last  roused  to  fury  by  its  infernal  repetition, 
as  it  went  round  the  house,  dived  off  into  the  stable,  and 
then  returned  to  its  old  place  under  our  window.  I  ran  out 
with  a  big  whip  and  a  volley  of  *  language/  which  must  have 
frightened  the  delinquent ;  for  he  ceased  performing  during 
the  remainder  of  the  night.  In  the  morning  I  learned  that 
he  was  the  hotel  watchman,  whose  function  is  to  go  about  the 
premises  rattling  a  stone  in  an  old  tin  pot  in  order  to  frighten, 
not  thieves,  with  whom  he  has  no  concern,  but  the  devil. 

At  Tientsin,  we  saw  for  the  first  time  in  China,  several 
very  fine  mules,  which  in  height  and  substance,  almost  equal 
those  of  Spain.  We  also  met  on  the  road  from  time  to  time, 
Tartar  horsemen  who  proudly  'show  off'  by  making  their 
hardy  little  ponies  amble  at  a  great  rate,  to  the  terror  of  the 
sober-minded  Chinese,  to  whom  rapidity  of  action,  as  well  as 
of  thought,  is  an  abomination.  My  only  regret  was  that  we 
were  unable  to  find  time  for  a  tour  among  these  ardent  lovers 
of  horses,  to  whose  country  we  were  then  very  near.  When 


Tea  in  China.  175 

the  railway  is  complete  in  a  few  years,  you  and  I,  my  adven- 
turous reader,  may  some  day  stroll  into  Mr  Thomas  Cook's 
office  in  Ludgate  Circus,  take  an  excursion  ticket,  get  out  at 
Vladivostock,  and  have  lots  of  big-game  shooting  in  Manchu 
Tartary.  Were  I  to  make  such  a  trip,  I  think  I  should  keep 
a  sharp  look-out  for  all  the  likely  galloping  ponies,  and  having 
selected  the  best,  embark  with  them  for  Shanghai ;  being  quite 
certain  of  an  average  of  ^50  a  piece  from  my  sporting  friends 
in  the  '  Model  Settlement.' 

One  must  never  say  that  anything  is  new  until  one  has 
been  to  China.  To  my  amazement,  I  saw,  one  day  at  Tientsin, 
the  principle  of  one  of  my  favourite  appliances  used  by  a 
Manchu  Tartar  in  a  bridle  on  his  mule.  It  has  probably  been 
employed  by  these  horsemen  from  time  immemorial. 

The  country  round  Tientsin  is  flat,  low-lying,  is  subject  to 
frequent  inundations  from  the  river,  and  is  a  general  burial- 
ground  for  the  Chinese,  who  plant  their  dead  wherever  they 
think  fit ;  consequently,  the  surface  water  is  strongly  impreg- 
nated with  a  flavour  of  pigtail.  The  Chinese  adapt  the  wise 
precaution  of  drinking  water  only  in  the  form  of  weak  tea, 
which  is  dispensed  for  a  very  moderate  sum  by  numerous 
peripatetic  venders.  They,  as  we  all  know,  use  neither  milk 
nor  sugar  with  their  favourite  decoction.  As  they  consume 
large  quantities  of  this  fluid,  they  have  it  of  a  strength  akin 
to  what  ladies  are  pleased  to  call  '  husband's  tea ' ;  although 
they  never  commit  the  atrocity  of  *  watering  the  pot/  after 
it  has  been  exhausted.  The  Chinaman  does  not  wash  out  his 
tea-pot.  He  simply  throws  out  the  used  leaves,  makes  a  fresh 
brew,  and  so  on,  until  the  interior  of  the  utensil  has  such  a 
fine  old  crust  on  it,  that,  if  required,  he  could  get  a  fairly 
good  cup  of  tea  out  of  it,  by  merely  adding  water. 

We  returned  to  Shanghai  in  June  1888,  and  started  for 
Yokohama  by  the  French  mail  steamer.  A  passenger's  life 
on  board  one  of  these  boats  is  the  perfection  of  comfort  at 
sea.  The  food  is  excellent,  you  are  given  plenty  of  time 
to  eat  it,  and  the  wine  is  pure,  not  fabrique.  The  dilution  of 


176  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

vin  rouge,  I  may  mention,  should  be  accomplished,  not  with 
water,  but  with  St  Galmier,  the  slight  alkalinity  of  which 
corrects  any  acidity  there  may  be  in  the  wine. 

The  short  run  to  Kobe,  and  through  the  beautiful  Inland 
Sea,  was  far  too  brief.  We  had  not  been  half  an  hour  in 
Yokohama  before  I  recognised  the  fact  that  it  would  be  use- 
less to  try  to  do  anything  in  the  horsebreaking  line  in  Japan  ; 
for  the  ponies  were  too  miserable  a  lot  to  experiment  upon. 
They  are  flat-sided,  weedy,  spiritless  brutes,  although  hardy 
and  good  workers  at  a  very  slow  pace.  So  we  gave  up  the 
idea  of  paying  our  expenses,  and  devoted  ourselves  to  sight- 
seeing. 

The  Yokohama  racecourse,  which  is  a  mile  and  twenty  yards 
in  length,  is  about  three  miles  from  the  city  on  the  Negishi 
Hill,  from  which  a  charming  view  of  hill  and  valley,  field  and 
forest,  land  and  water  can  be  seen.  The  course  is  undulating, 
well  kept,  and  is  on  excellent  turf.  The  racing  which  is  con- 
fined to  ponies  of  China  and  Japan,  is  very  poor  ;  for  the 
estimable  little  Japs  have  far  too  much  of  the  monkey  strain 
in  them  to  be  sportsmen,  and  the  white  inhabitants  are  poor 
and  lacking  in  enterprise.  Grass  sandals,  which  last  one  day 
and  are  then  replaced  by  new  ones,  are  frequently  used  in 
place  of  shoes  with  ponies  in  Japan.  Whether  the  men  are 
so  fast,  or  the  ponies  are  so  slow,  I  cannot  say ;  but  a  bettoe 
(native  groom)  starting  fair  on  foot  with  his  master  on  horse- 
back, will  always  be  the  first  to  arrive  at  their  destination. 

I  utilised  my  short  stay  in  Japan  to  the  best  advantage, 
in  the  study  of  wood  and  ivory  carvings,  satsuma,  cloisonne 
work,  kakimonas,  and  other  branches  of  Japanese  art,  which 
is  too  vast  and  profound  a  subject  for  me  to  touch  with  the 
insolence  of  ignorance.  I  shall  say  something  about  eating, 
with  which  I  am  well  acquainted,  as  I  have  been  practising 
it  regularly  two  or  three  times  a  day  for  half  a  century.  The 
climate  of  Japan  is  too  moist  for  sheep,  though  excellent  for 
horned  cattle.  Prawns,  mackerel,  and  the  true  black  sole  are 
to  be  had  in  abundance.  The  American  chad  is  to  be  found 


Japan.  177 

there,  and  also  in  north  China,  under  the  name  of  samli.  It 
is,  I  believe,  the  same  fish  as  the  Indian  hilsa.  The  fruit, 
vegetables,  milk,  cream,  and  butter  are  like  unto  those  of 
England.  The  climate  is  similar  to  that  of  France,  without 
the  great  cold  in  winter.  The  people  are  hospitable,  and 
show  strangers  plainly  that  it  gives  them  pleasure  to  be 
obliging  and  civil ;  consequently,  they  are  incapable  business 
men,  and  have  no  moral  backbone.  Freemasons  in  Japan 
have  recognised  the  volatile  character  of  the  inhabitants,  in 
that  they  refrain  from  admitting  any  Japanese  into  their 
order ;  although  they  make  no  objection  to  Chinese,  whose 
socialistic  training  and  traditions  eminently  fit  them  for 
keeping  their  own  secrets.  With  very  few  exceptions,  the 
native  clerks  in  all  the  banks  and  mercantile  houses  in  Japan 
are  Chinamen. 

Of  all  the  hotels  I  have  known  east  of  the  Suez  Canal, 
the  Grand  at  Yokohama  is  the  best,  with  the  Hong  Kong 
Hotel  a  good  second.  The  profusion  of  fruit  and  vegetables 
to  be  found  in  Japan,  is  most  acceptable  to  the  western 
traveller.  Every  morning  at  early  breakfast  in  the  Grand 
we  used  to  have,  without  extra  charge,  an  unlimited  supply 
of  strawberries,  which,  I  might  suggest,  taste  better  with 
Burgundy  (Corton,  perhaps,  for  choice)  and  a  little  kirsch 
(the  flavour  of  curacoa  is  too  pronounced  for  some),  than 
with  cream.  I  need  hardly  say  that  the  kirsch  wasser  to 
which  I  refer,  is  the  spirit  distilled  from  cherries,  and  not 
the  sickly  mess  which  goes  by  the  name  of  cherry  brandy. 
In  Yokohama,  Shanghai,  Hong  Kong  and  Amoy,  there  are 
excellently  managed  dairy  farms.  The  milk,  as  a  rule,  costs 
fivepence  a  pint,  which  is  two  and  a  half  times  as  dear  as  in 
London.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  richer  than  the  English 
product ;  for  the  food  given  to  the  cows  is  drier. 


M 


Photo,  by  H.  R.  Sherborn,  Newmarket. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

Return  to  India — Starting  a  Newspaper — Society  in  India — The  Counter 
Test— Planters— Life  in  Calcutta — Public  Opinion  in  India — Indian 
Officials — Amateur  Actors — Miss  Amy  Sherwin — Mr  Rudyard  Kipling 
as  a  Flatterer. 

WHEN  we  got  tired  of  buying  curios  and  studying 
Japanese  life,  we  asked  ourselves  the  important 
question  :  '  What  next  ? '  I  was  for  going  to  California  or 
Australia;  but  my  wife,  like  all  ladies  who  have  ever  been 
to  India,  longed  to  return  to  the  country  of  mangos,  curry, 
'bow-wows/  ride-where-you-like-and-no-law-of-trespass,  su- 
premacy of  women,  and  kala  jugahs,  declared  for  Calcutta. 
She,  knowing  my  love  for  new  sensations,  represented  that 
I  had  never  run  a  newspaper,  and  that  there  was  room  for 
a  smart  one,  on  sporting  lines,  in  the  City  of  Palaces.  The 
novelty  of  the  idea  charmed  me,  especially  as  I  knew  that 
in  India  I  had,  for  my  books,  a  large  reading  public,  many 

178 


Indian  Society.  179 

of  which,  I  argued,  would  be  glad  to  take  my  paper.     We 
accordingly   went   to   Calcutta,  via    Hong    Kong  (where    I 
held    a    large    class),    Singapore    and    Penang.      Within   a 
couple   of  months   after   we   had    returned    from   Japan    to 
India,  our  venture,  under  the  title  of  Hayes1  Sporting  News, 
was    launched.      We   burned   our   metaphorical    ships,   and 
entered  on   our  literary  campaign  with   high   hopes  and  a 
firm  resolve  to  make  our  paper  a  success.     With  the  help 
of  a  strong  outside  staff,  consisting  of  Skrene  of  the  Bengal 
Civil  Service,  Lloyd  of  the  Opium  Department,  Beatty  of 
the   Bombay  Police,  Shipley  of  the  Madras  Civil    Service, 
*  The  Dwarf  of  Blood/  and  many  other  brilliant  and  able 
writers,  our    Sporting  News  won  support  and  favour  from 
readers  all  over  India.     Like  thorough  Bohemians  who  would 
eat  no  dirt,  and  who  would  not  bow  the  knee  to  brass  gods, 
we  took  our  own  line  and  published  that  what  we  thought 
right.     I   may  explain  that    Indian  society  is  governed  on 
bureaucratic   principles.     First  comes  the    army,  the    subal- 
terns of  which  stand  in  awe  of  their  captains ;   the  captains, 
of  their  senior  majors ;  the  senior  majors,  of  their  colonels  ; 
the  colonels,  of  their  generals ;  the  generals,  of  their  com- 
mander-in-chief ;    the    commander-in-chief,   of    the   viceroy; 
the  viceroy,  of  the  home  authorities,  who  continue  the  chain 
of    responsibility   up   to    King   Demos.      The    Indian    Civil " 
Service  and  all  the  various  '  non-covented '  departments  are 
ruled  by  a  similar  fear.      The  non-official  element  may  be 
divided   into  the  mercantile  community  and   planters.      As 
the  only  social  recognition  (in    India)   to   non-officials  who 
do  not  hold  titles  in  their  own  right,  is  the  entree  to  Govern- 
ment House,  those  traders  who  can  obtain  the  much-coveted 
invitation  are,  as  a  rule,  anxious  to  avoid  giving  offence  to 
the  military  secretary  or  other  bigwig  who,  at  a  stroke  of 
his  pen,  can  convert  Mr  Plantagenet-Smith,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  local  society,  from  a  gentleman  into  a  cad,  and,  worse 
still,  can  thus  degrade  Mrs   Plantagenet.      The  test  of  re- 
spectability consists  in  the  manner  in  which  the  trader  sells 


i  So  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

his  wares.     If  he,  like  the  great  house  of  Henry  S.  King  & 
Company,  will  consent   to   part  with,  say,  a  box  of  cigars 
only  out  of  a  warehouse,  he  is  eligible  ;  but  if,   like    Pisti   and 
Pelicano,   he   hands    his    hundred    weeds    across   a   counter, 
he    is  damned.      The  unsuccessful   candidate   for   admission 
to  Government  House  is  debarred  not  alone  from  dancing, 
eating  and   drinking  there ;  but   is  actually  a  social  pariah ; 
for  such  exclusion  practically  prevents  him   from  belonging 
to  any  of  the  best  local  clubs,  which  do  much  to  mitigate 
the   discomforts   of   Indian    life.      The   traders   who   cannot 
pass  the  counter  test,  either  willingly  accept  their  position 
as  social   outsiders,  or  so  order  their  life  that  they  may,  in 
the  near  future,  obtain  the  coveted  invitation.     In  any  case, 
as  they,  for  the  most  part,  make  their  livelihood  out  of  the 
officials  ;    they  are  careful   not  to  wound   the  susceptibilities 
of  their  customers.     The  planters,  God   bless  them,  care  for 
none  of  these  things.     When  visitors  go  to  them,  they  give 
them    to   eat  and    drink   of  the   best,  lend    them  horses   to 
ride,  get  up  shooting  and  pig-sticking  meets,  and  treat  them 
with   that  fine  old   Indian   hospitality  which,  except   in   the 
indigo  and  tea  districts,  is  now  almost  unknown,  and  which 
has    become   such  an   anachronism    that  it   is   generally   its 
own  reward.     Hospitality  given  in  Tirhoot  or  Assam  is  not 
always    reciprocated    in    Calcutta,   and    still    less   when    the 
quondam   guest   meets   his    former    host   in    Piccadilly,  and 
passes  by  on   the  other  side.     Though   I   do  not  commend 
such  practice,  I  cannot  wonder  at  its  existence.     The  isolated 
planter  was  glad   of  the  society  of  the  new-comer,  out  of 
whom    amusement,  if  not   instruction,   might   be   extracted. 
When  the  traveller,  not  alone  appropriated   the  free   meals, 
drink    and   bed,  but   also  annexes   the   fun    in   the  form   of 
*  copy,'  as  has  been  done  by  some  globe  trotters  and  itinerant 
journalists,  I  grant  that  his  conduct  is  indefensible. 

Having  placed  ourselves  in  the  centre  of  a  public  con- 
stituted as  I  have  just  described,  we  ought,  in  the  opinion 
of  our  well-wishers,  to  have  made  capital  out  of  its  follies, 


Calcutta.  1 8  r 

meannesses  and  prejudices.  On  the  contrary,  we  called  a 
spade  a  spade,  whether  in  the  case  of  a  horse  being  *  pulled ' 
or  a  public  institution  being  mismanaged.  We  had  hosts 
of  secret  admirers  who  longed  to  extract  roasted  chestnuts 
out  of  the  fire  by  means  of  our  paws ;  but  who  were  un- 
willing to  expose  their  own  tender  skins  to  the  heat  of 
official  or  social  wrath.  Besides  the  record  and  review  of 
sport,  our  paper  contained  valuable  articles  on  popular 
veterinary  surgery,  riding,  horsebreaking  and  other  kindred 
subjects  which  made  it  useful  to  a  horse-loving  public; 
and  it  was  brightened  up  by  original  stories,  essays,  sketches 
and  vers  de  societe  which  I  constantly  received  from  my  literary 
friends.  The  high  quality  of  the  paper  killed  it ;  for  the 
keeping  it  up  to  the  standard  we  had  fixed,  necessitated 
my  always  remaining  in  Calcutta.  It  is  true  that,  besides 
my  journalistic  work,  I  had  ample  employment  in  horse- 
dealing  and  racing.  The  trainers,  jockeys,  dealers,  stable- 
keepers,  and  rough  riders  were  our  friends  to  a  man.  But 
the  men  whom  I  knew,  when  in  the  Service,  as  equals, 
looked  upon  me  more  or  less  as  an  outsider,  so  that  the 
dreams  which  my  wife  had  of  a  pleasant  life  in  India  re- 
mained unfulfilled,  and,  after  a  three  years'  struggle,  we 
began  to  ask  ourselves  the  question  :  Does  the  pleasure  of 
4  running  '  the  paper  make  up  for  the  discomforts  of  living 
in  Calcutta  ?  I  had  seen  so  much  of  the  world,  that  it 
was  absolutely  immaterial  to  me  whether  my  associates 
were  private  soldiers  or  generals,  or  men  who  sold  whisky 
or  cigars  over  counters  or  out  of  '  godowns.'  The  Viceroy 
of  India  could  confer  on  me  no  social  position  equal  to 
that  I  held  in  my  own  right  as  an  author.  I  was  on 
friendly  terms  with  all  the  people  in  India  whose  opinions 
on  horses,  sport,  or  literature  were  worth  having.  As  I  had 
never  once  availed  myself  of  the  right  I  had  of  entering 
Government  House,  during  the  sixteen  years  I  spent  in 
India  as  an  officer  of  the  army;  it  was  not  likely  that  I 
would  want  to  go  there  in  my  old  age.  But  my  wife  is 


1 82  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

twenty  years  younger  than  I  am.  She  could  not  share  with 
me  the  amusements  I  had,  knocking  about  at  race-meetings 
with  all  sorts  of  sporting  characters,  getting  up  boxing  and 
athletic  matches,  and  other  '  divarsions '  dear  to  the  heart 
of  an  Irishman.  She  is  musical,  a  clever  actress,  and  born 
to  shine  in  society.  The  weather  was  getting  dreadfully 
hot.  The  best  racing  pony  I  ever  possessed  died.  Our 
treasure  of  a  cook,  whose  Roman  punch  and  prawn  cut- 
lets were  divine,  disappeared  with  another  man's  wife ;  and 
my  London  publishers  kept  writing  to  me  every  mail,  that 
new  editions  of  my  books  were  required.  My  editorial  work 
allowed  me  no  time  to  bring  them  out,  and  one  of  the  best  of 
good  fellows  in  the  shape  of  Mr  Harry  Abbott  made  an  offer 
to  buy  our  paper  for  a  fair  sum  ;  so  what  could  I  do,  under 
the  pressure  of  all  these  circumstances,  than  accept  it  ? 

Among  the  English  residents  in  India,  public  opinion  does 
not  exist.  Such  a  thing  would  be  too  absurd  in  a  society  in 
which  the  juniors  are  dependent  on  the  seniors  for  promotion, 
leave,  and  all  the  small  privileges  which  make  life  bearable. 
The  continued  state  of  pupilage  in  which  all  but  the  few 
lucky  ones  remain,  knocks  the  manhood  out  of  those  who 
dare  not  call  their  souls  their  own.  The  Indian  official, 
whether  military,  civilian,  or  departmental,  is  consequential, 
infallible  in  his  own  eyes,  and  intolerant  of  outside  criticism. 
He  regards  as  a  gross  personal  insult  the  mention,  however 
well  founded,  in  a  newspaper,  of  any  fault  in  the  working  of 
the  machinery  over  which  he  is  the  director.  This  gentleman 
of  the  Vctat  cest  mot  order  maintains  that  if  anything  goes 
wrong  in  his  province,  a  report  might  be  laid  before  him,  but 
should  on  no  account  be  sent  to  a  newspaper.  In  this 
contention  of  his,  which  advocates  the  principle  that  every 
man  should  be  the  sole  judge  of  his  own  actions  and  those  of 
his  subordinates,  there  is  a  large  amount  of  human  nature. 
If  his  infallibility  be  acknowledged,  he  will  rarely  exhibit  any 
undue  amount  of  insolence  of  office.  Though  narrow-minded, 
on  account  of  the  routine  nature  of  his  training,  he  is  kind- 


Indian  Amateurs.  183 

hearted,  generous,  and  hospitable  in  his  social  circle.  Being 
a  bird  of  passage,  he  lacks  sympathy,  and  does  not  see  why 
he  should  worry  himself  about  the  misery  with  which  he  is 
surrounded,  when  his  thoughts  are  fully  occupied  in  trying 
to  get  some  better  post,  or  in  preparing  for  leave,  furlough,  or 
retirement.  If  a  civilian,  he  has  to  make  a  show  of  public 
philanthropy,  agreeably  to  the  expressed  or  understood  wishes 
of  Government.  As  he  has  really  a  great  deal  of  work  to  do, 
and  as  the  climate  makes  the  visiting  of  the  poor  and  sick  an 
irksome  labour,  our  typical  official  generally  deputes  the  duty 
to  some  understrapper  who  thoroughly  understands  the 
combined  service  of  God  and  Mammon.  If  some  busybody 
who  absurdly  thinks  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  of  us  to  minister 
to  the  wants  of  the  sick  and  helpless,  dares  to  call  attention 
to  the  mismanagement  of  public  charity,  the  official,  fearing 
that  the  vicarious  nature  of  his  philanthropy  may  be  brought 
to  light,  will  naturally  do  everything  he  possibly  can  to  white- 
wash his  peccant  subordinates.  Remembering  his  many  good 
points,  among  which  incorruptibility  and  kindness  of  heart 
are  the  most  prominent ;  we  may  well  forgive  the  Indian 
official  for  his  self-sufficiency  and  airs  of  authority.  Life  is 
not  all  beer  and  skittles  with  him,  any  more  than  it  is  with 
the  majority  of  us.  A  long  residence  in  India  unfits  him,  as 
a  rule,  both  mentally  and  physically,  to  take  when  he  retires, 
a  prominent  part  among  his  fellow  men  in  England.  As 
official  rank  is  his  sole  claim  to  respect,  he  carefully  chooses 
the  society  of  men  situated  like  himself;  for  they  are  the  only 
persons  who  would  acknowledge  such  a  claim. 

Amateur  actors  and  singers  and  amateur  actresses  and 
songstresses  are  prominent  personages  in  Indian  society. 
They  are  very  exclusive.  They  refuse  to  consort  with  non- 
professionals  connected  with  trade.  Under  occasional  fits  of 
liberality,  they  will  play  with  professionals  on  the  considera- 
tion of  lots  of  'fat/  suppers,  and  clothes.  If  the  legitimate 
mummers  wish  to  run  their  own  show,  the  amateurs  will  let 
them  severely  alone,  and  will  try  to  induce  their  friends  to  do 


184  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

the  same.  We  all  know  and  admire  that  accomplished  artist 
Miss  Amy  Sherwin.  On  one  occasion,  she  went  to  Calcutta 
with  a  thoroughly  capable  concert  company.  The  local 
amateurs  approached  her  with  offers  of  assistance,  which  she 
gracefully  declined,  on  the  plea  that  her  company  was 
composed  of  thoroughly  capable  professionals,  whom  she  was 
unwilling  to  slight  by  replacing  them  with  outsiders.  The 
spite  of  the  amateurs  at  this  very  natural  rebuff  had  such  a 
venomous  effect  through  the  weak-kneed  Calcutta  community, 
that  Miss  Sherwin  '  opened '  to  an  audience  of  about  two 
dozen  in  number,  most  of  whom  were  '  paper.'  Rendered 
sage  by  this  reverse,  she  consented  to  allow  the  pick  of  the 
amateur  basket  to  sing  at  her  next  concert  The  chosen 
lady,  as  amateurs  will  do,  attacked  one  of  Sullivan's  most 
difficult  songs,  and,  probably,  to  show  her  thorough  mastery 
of  it,  sang  it  through  her  teeth,  with  the  result  that  the 
majority  of  the  audience  almost  rolled  off  their  seats  in  fits  of 
laughter.  As  Miss  Sherwin  was  unwilling  to  continue  this 
comic  business,  she  packed  up  her  properties  and  went  to 
Shanghai,  where  she  and  her  company  had  a  most  enthusi- 
astic reception.  Not  content  with  loading  her  with  dollars, 
the  good  people  of  '  The  Model  Settlement '  presented  her 
with  a  very  handsome  testimonial.  The  Indian  amateur  does 
not  usually  believe  in  acting  for  charity  beyond  his  or  her 
home.  And  yet,  when  they  deliberately  '  go  for  the  pieces ' 
in  the  shape  of  drinks,  suppers  and  dresses,  they  are  insulted 
beyond  measure  if  their  pseudo  amateur  status  be  not  regarded 
by  the  press  as  a  bar  against  adverse  criticism.  Even  the 
thickest  layer  of  butter  is  sometimes  insufficient  to  satisfy  the 
hunger  after  praise  which  afflicts  the  Indian  amateur.  As  an 
instance  of  this,  I  may  mention  that  Mr  Rudyard  Kipling 
told  me  that  wishing  to  make  things  pleasant  in  a  report  he 
was  writing  on  some  amateur  theatricals  for  an  Indian  paper, 
he,  trying  how  far  he  could  go,  said  that  the  leading  lady 
(who  really  was  a  '  stick '  of  the  most  wooden  sort),  by  her 
marvellously  fine  acting,  reminded  him  of  Miss  Ellen  Terry. 


Mr  Rudyard  Kipling.  \  85 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  in  which  his  report  appeared,  he 
met  the  extravagantly  praised-up  one,  who,  instead  of  being 
annoyed  with  him  for  having  chaffed  her,  said  :  '  I  am  very 
cross  with  you,  Mr  Kipling,  for  having  compared  me  to  Miss 
Ellen  Terry,  who  is  much  older  than  I  am.  Don't  you  think 
that  I  am  far  more  like  Miss  Mary  Anderson  ? '  'I  am 
very  sorry/  replied  the  gallant  Mr  Kipling,  *  that  I  made  such 
a  stupid  mistake.  I  ought  to  have  said  that  you  reminded 
me  of  Miss  Mary  Anderson.'  '  Of  course,  that  was  what  you 
meant/  added  the  lady,  who  graciously  signified  her  accept- 
ance of  the  journalist's  amende.  *  After  that/  said  Mr  Kipling 
to  me,  '  I  gave  up  reporting  amateur  theatricals.' 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

Importation  of  Colonial  Horses  into  India — Horse  Dealing  at  Calcutta — The 
Saddle  selling  the  Horse — Horses  on  Board  Ship — Mr  More  on  Lord 
Combermere — Saddles — Colonial  Horse  Dealers — Mr  John  Stevens — 
Maoris — Teddy  Weeks — Kerouse — Treatment  of  Sprains  in  Horses — 
Racing  in  India — The  Apcars — Lord  William  Beresford — Paper- 
Chasing — A  Jingle — India  as  a  School  for  Riding. 

T)ESIDES  the  paper,  I  had  horse  dealing,  veterinary  prac- 
JJ  tice,  and  training  to  occupy  my  time  ;  the  first  two,  all  the 
year  round  ;  the  last  mentioned,  for  about  seven  months  out  of 
the  twelve.  I  may  explain  that  the  large  majority  of  superior 
saddle  and  harness  horses  used  in  India  come  from  Australia 
and  New  Zealand  ;  2500  to  3000  being  yearly  imported  into 
Calcutta,  and  about  1000  to  1500  into  Madras.  Few  are  sent 
to  Bombay,  which  imports  annually  about  1200  Arabs  and 
Persians.  Out  of  the  Calcutta  lot,  600,  more  or  less,  are 
taken  by  the  Government  Remount  Department  for  army 

1 86 


Horse  Dealing.  187 

purposes  ;  and  say,  half  that  number,  by  the  Madras  authori- 
ties. Though  inclined  to  have  plain  heads  and  drooping  croups, 
the  Autralasian  horses  have,  as  a  rule,  remarkably  good  legs  and 
feet,  and  capital  shoulders  for  saddle  work.  The  dealers,  such 
as  Macklin,  Hunter,  Stevens,  Gascard,  Ralli,  Cavanagh,  Dirom, 
Margarett,  Gidney,  Madden,  Green,  Hastie,  Hegarty,  Haw- 
kins, Gove.  Macintosh,  Macaulay  and  others,  bring  them  over 
in  batches  of  from  50  to  400.  The  horses  are  mostly  four  or 
five  years  old,  and  average  in  cost  about  £15  a  piece,  to 
which  must  be  added  £10  or  £12  for  freight  and  expenses, 
and,  say,  £3  or  £4  for  casualties.  They  can  therefore  be 
landed  for  about  £30  or  thirty  guineas  a  head.  As  Govern- 
ment gives  from  £40  to  £45  a  piece  for  its  remounts,  and  as 
it  buys  without  imposing  any  harassing  delay  or  expense, 
the  'shippers'  are  generally  anxious  to  submit  their  new 
arrivals  to  the  Remount  Agent,  who  reserves  to  himself  the 
right  of  selecting  for  army  purposes  as  many  or  as  few  as  he 
likes  ;  the  dealer  being  allowed  to  reserve  some  for  private 
sale.  This  system  has  been  found  to  act  admirably  in  the 
hands  of  poor  '  Bill '  Thacker,  '  Ben  '  Roberts,  '  Tommy '  St 
Quintin,  and  P.  K.  Beaver,  who,  as  Remount  Agents,  have 
been  singularly  moderate  in  using  their  influence  to  get  horses 
'  on  the  cheap '  for  either  themselves  or  their  friends.  As  the 
Government  purchases  are,  as  a  rule,  made  in  October,  the 
majority  of  these  shipments  arrive  in  that  month.  After  the 
Remount  Agent  has  had  his  pick,  the  shipper  submits  the 
remainder  to  the  private  market,  and  often,  while  waiting  for 
it,  loses  a  good  deal  of  time  and  money.  He,  probably,  has 
to  hang  on  to  the  end  of  February,  by  which  time,  the 
weather  is  becoming  hot,  the  residents  are  making  prepara- 
tions to  flit  to  the  Hills  or  to  England,  and  the  tired-out 
dealer  wants  to  get  back  to  the  Colonies  to  see  about  getting 
together  another  importation  for  the  following  October.  On 
the  principle  of  the  first  loss  being  the  least,  he  will  generally 
sell  those  that  are  left  at  a  very  small  price,  or,  failing  an 
offer,  will  put  them  up  to  auction  to  the  highest  bidder.  From 


1 88  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

among  these  '  culls '  as  they  are  called,  I  have  bought  many 
useful  horses,  about  100  of  which  I  afterwards  sold,  at 
different  times,  to  Native  cavalry  regiments,  whose  top  price 
was  350  rupees,  say,  £20.  Neither  mouths  nor  manners 
were  of  course  guaranteed  at  that  price.  The  horses  I  usually 
bought  for  chargers  and  hacks,  generally  cost  me  from  £30 
to  £100  a  piece.  Though  capable  of  breaking-in  almost  any 
horse  for  my  own  use,  I  always  kept  in  remembrance  the  fact 
that  although  '  difficult '  horses  may  be  reclaimed  for  the  time 
being,  and  kept  under  control  by  a  capable  man  ;  they  are 
always  liable,  at  little  or  no  provocation,  to  revert  to  their  evil 
courses.  Hence  I  took  special  care,  which  of  course  was  not 
always  infallible,  to  buy  quiet  horses.  The  majority  of  men 
ride  so  very  badly,  that  when  selling  a  riding  horse,  I  always 
put  on  him  a  particular  saddle  which  is  the  most  comfortable 
one  I  have  ever  seen.  Time  after  time  I  have  had  men  who 
had  bought  a  horse  from  me,  come  on  the  following  day  and 
entreat  me  to  sell  them  my  saddle,  which,  some  of  them  were 
shrewd  enough  to  observe,  had  been  the  means  of  selling  the 
horse.  It  certainly  was  not  my  fault  if  men  failed  to  provide 
themselves  with  saddles,  out  of  which  they  could  fall  with 
difficulty. 

As  horses  are  apt  to  suffer  a  good  deal  from  the  sea 
voyage  between  Australia  and  India,  they  often  arrive  in 
wretched  condition,  and  can  consequently  be  bought  very 
cheaply.  If  I  have  heard  one  man,  I  have  heard  five  hun- 
dred remark,  as  if  they  were  making  a  valuable  and  original 
observation,  that  they  like  to  buy  fresh  animals  thin  ;  for 
they  can  then  best  see  their  '  make  and  shape.'  My  experi- 
ence, on  the  contrary,  is  all  in  favour  of  making  selections 
from  those  which  are  in  good  condition  on  arrival  ;  for  the  fact 
that  they  are  '  big,'  goes  a  long  way  to  prove  that  they  must 
have  had  good  constitutions  to  have  '  stood '  the  journey  so 
well.  Besides  this,  horses  which  land  very  *  poor,'  have 
often  suffered  so  much  by,  for  instance,  having  been  placed  in 
some  ill-ventilated  position,  that  their  lungs  or  general  health 


Shipping  Horses.  1 8  9 

receive  some  permanent  injury.  My  advice  is,  don't  have 
anything  to  say  to  such  '  wasters.' 

The  voyage  from  the  Colonies  takes  from  twenty-five  to  fifty 
days,  according  as  it  is  direct,  or  via  Singapore  and  Penang. 
Unless  in  the  case  of  animals  of  considerable  value,  fhe 
horses  have  to  stand  the  whole  time,  and  when  the  entire 
vessel  is  given  up  to  them,  they  occupy  the  lower  deck,  main 
deck,  and  upper  deck.  An  ordinary  cargo  steamer,  called 
in  nautical  language  a  'tramp,'  could  carry  from  three 
hundred  and  fifty  to  four  hundred  horses.  The  chartering 
of  vessels  from  the  Colonies  to  Calcutta,  is  greatly  facili- 
tated by  the  fact  that  the  tonnage  of  the  imports  into 
Australasia  greatly  exceeds  that  of  the  exports,  and 
that  there  are  large  shipments  of  grain  and  other  *  country 
produce '  from  Calcutta  to  England.  Hence,  there  are  always 
a  fair  number  of  vessels  at  Melbourne,  Sydney,  Adelaide,  and 
other  Colonial  ports,  which,,  having  come  out  with  a  full  cargo 
are  unable  to  get  one  on  the  homeward  voyage,  and  conse- 
quently their  owners  or  agents  are  glad  to  hire  them  to  take 
horses  at  a  cheap  rate  to  Calcutta,  at  which  port  they  will  be 
certain  to  get  a  cargo  for  England.  Sooner  than  send  them 
home  empty,  the  agents,  acting  for  the  owners,  often  advance 
the  money  to  a  dealer  for  the  purchase  of  a  shipload  of  horses, 
which  they  consign  to  one  of  the  Calcutta  firms  to  whom  the 
account  of  the  sales  is  duly  rendered,  or  the  agents  may  ad- 
vance a  portion  of  the  money.  Only  a  few  of  the  shippers 
work  with  their  own  money ;  although  they  all  naturally  like 
to  appear  before  their  customers  as  men  of  independent 
property. 

When  shipping  valuable  horses  singly,  I  have  found  that 
the  chief  requisites  to  their  comfort  is  a  flooring  of  thick  coir 
matting  with  long  fibres  projecting  upwards  (of  the  door- 
mat pattern) ;  a  roomy  box,  at  least  7^  feet  by  5  feet,  placed 
athwart  ships  to  live  in  ;  good  ventilation  ;  and  protection  from 
heavy  seas  coming  on  board.  The  coir  matting  not  alone 
affords  firm  foothold,  but  also  gives  the  frogs  of  the  feet  that 


1 90  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

evenly  distributed  pressure  which  is  indispensable  to  their 
health.  No  matter  how  badly  a  ship  may  pitch  and  roll,  a 
horse  with  this  matting  under  him  can  remain  in  security, 
either  standing  up  or  lying  down ;  although  he  would  be 
knocked  to  pieces  on  wood  flooring,  even  if  it  were  provided 
with  battens  and  straw.  Some  ignorant  persons  —  among 
which  class  I  had  to  number  myself,  the  first  time  I  took  a 
horse  on  a  long  sea  voyage — imagine  that  slings  are  a  good 
thing  to  put  under  a  horse  during  rough  weather.  On  the 
contrary,  their  employment  has  the  direct  effect  of  taking  him 
off  his  legs  and  getting  him  dashed  from  side  to  side  in  his 
box.  In  fine  weather  they  are  useful,  if  the  box  be  too  small 
for  the  animal  to  lie  down  in,  and  if  they  be  put  on  slackly,  to 
enable  him  to  rest  on  them  when  he  chooses.  As  an  improve- 
ment, I  would  suggest  that  the  coir  matting,  which  should 
have  a  thick  '  pile '  on  it,  be  made  a  little  larger  than  the 
bottom  of  the  box,  so  that  it  may  be  built  up  into  the  sides 
when  the  box  is  being  constructed.  Then,  as  long  as  the  box 
holds  together,  the  coir  matting  cannot  become  displaced. 
The  attendant  on  a  valuable  horse  at  sea  would  do  well  to 
provide  himself  with  an  equine  strait-jacket,  which  is  fully 
described  in  my  book,  Illustrated  Horse-Breaking  ;  for  if  there 
be  any  chance  of  the  horse  getting  frightened  on  account  of 
bad  weather,  and  knocking  himself  about,  all  the  man  will 
have  to  do  to  keep  the  animal  safe  and  sound,  is  to  slip  on 
the  strait-jacket,  and  adjust  it  as  may  be  required.  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  few,  if  any,  of  the  persons  who  have  been 
in  charge  of  horses  which,  like  Blue  Gown,  Ossary  who  was 
own  brother  to  Ormonde,  Prince  lo  and  scores  of  other  valu- 
able animals,  have  been  lost  from  stress  of  weather  when 
crossing  the  Atlantic,  knew  much  about  the  virtues  of  thick 
'  pily '  coir  matting  and  strait-jackets  for  horses.  The  two 
great  dangers  to  which  a  boxed  horse  is  specially  exposed  on 
board  ship  are  :  having  the  box  knocked  to  pieces  or  carried 
away  by  heavy  seas  coming  over  the  side  ;  and  the  horse  get- 
ting tossed,  during  rough  weather,  from  side  to  side  in  his  box 


Saddles.  191 

on  account  of  his  not  being  able  to  retain  his  foothold,  and 
becoming  thus  more  or  less  seriously  injured.  On  such  un- 
fortunate occasions,  the  horse  will  almost  invariably  become 
dreadfully  frightened,  and  in  his  frantic  efforts  to  escape,  will 
dash  himself  about  wholly  regardless  of  the  fearful  injuries 
which  he  may  inflict  upon  himself.  With  respect  to  the  loss 
of  Ossory  and  Prince  lo,  I  read  in  The  Spirit  of  the  Times  that 
Mr  Brett  (I  wonder  if  he  was  any  relation  of  my  Newmarket 
acquaintance,  Joshua,  of  that  name,  who  got  into  trouble  for 
running  over  a  country  as  a  maiden,  an  old  steeple-chaser  and 
well-known  winner?)  who  had  charge  of  these  horses,  said 
that  he  could  not  keep  either  straw  or  sawdust  under  them ; 
as  it  got  washed  away  by  the  water  which  was  shipped.  I  need 
hardly  say  that  no  amount  of  washing  would  have  been  able 
to  have  removed  the  coir  matting.  Besides,  straw  from  its 
slippery  nature,  is  one  of  the  worst  things  which  could  be  put 
under  a  horse  during  bad  weather  at  sea.  When  horses  get 
killed  in  this  outrageous  manner,  any  insurance  company 
which  had  taken  the  risk  on  them,  would  be  right  to  resist 
all  claim  for  compensation  on  account  of  the  fact  that  pro- 
per precautions  had  not  been  taken  for  their  safety. 

I  cannot  let  the  subject  of  saddles  pass,  without  saying 
that  comfort  is  the  first  thing  I  look  for  in  a  saddle.  To  have 
'  good  hands,'  we  must,  I  need  hardly  say,  have  a  firm  seat. 
In  the  riding  of  raw  and  skittish  horses,  at  which  game  I  am 
as  good  as  most  of  my  neighbours,  I  find  that,  at  times,  I  re- 
quire all  the  '  gum  '  at  my  command,  and  more  if  I  could  get 
it,  to  avoid  '  hanging  on  '  to  the  reins.  Hence,  I  go  in  for  a 
comfortable  saddle  in  which  I  can  get  a  good  grip.  For  this 
work,  I  do  not  believe  in  a  plain  flap  saddle,  unless  it  has 
'  false  rolls,'  or  unless  some  extra  stuffing  is  put  into  the 
panel  at  the  front  part  of  the  flaps ;  for  if  this  be  not  done, 
the  rider's  knees  will  have  a  tendency  to  go  forward,  on  ac- 
count of  all  well-made  saddle  horses  being  broader  at  the 
spot  where  the  knees  grip  the  flaps,  than  they  are  towards  the 
shoulders.  This  is  an  anatomical  fact  which  we  must  not 


192  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

ignore.  My  experience  is  that  the  worse  men  ride,  the  more 
do  they  affect  slippery  saddles.  Australian  horsemen  will  un- 
derstand me  when  I  say  that  the  large  majority  of  saddles 
used  in  England  are  unfit  to  ride  in  on  account  of  being  too 
wide  in  the  *  twist '  or  '  waist/  a  fault  which  prevents  the 
rider  from  sitting  close  to  the  horse.  This  clumsy  pattern 
has  been  handed  down  from  the  days  when  men  rode  cart 
horses,  whose  broad  backs  required  the  bars  of  a  saddle-tree 
to  be  wide  apart.  As  Australasian  horses  are  more  or  less 
well  bred,  and  as  many  of  them  are  difficult  to  ride,  only 
saddles  narrow  in  the  '  twist '  or  '  grip '  are  used  in  those 
Colonies.  I  may  mention  that  the  trees  of  all  these  saddles 
come  from  Walsall ;  for  no  saddle-trees  are  made  in  Australia, 
although  many  get  '  covered '  there. 

I  was  on  the  best  of  terms  with  all  the  Australian  and 
New  Zealand  horse  shippers,  from  whom  I  received  the 
greatest  civility  and  kindness.  They  were  always  delighted 
to  '  pull  out/  and  let  me  try  any  of  their  horses  ;  for  they 
knew  that  I  would  never  think  of  troubling  them,  and"  of 
losing  my  own  time  unless  I  meant  to  buy.  What  these  men 
and  all  other  dealers  rightly  detest,  is  a  '  messer/  namely,  a 
person  who  cannot  make  up  his  mind,  or  who,  with  the  idea 
of  giving  himself  importance,  pretends  to  want  to  purchase  a 
horse,  but  who  has  not  the  remotest  intention  of  doing  so. 
When  I  had  a  good  order  on  hand,  I  dealt  liberally  with 
them  ;  and  as  they  knew  that  I  did  not  want  to  keep  all  the 
profit  myself,  they  were  ready  to  '  meet  me/  if  they  could 
possibly  do  so,  when  there  was  not  much  to  be  made  at  the 
price.  They  are  good  judges  of  horses,  and  have  to  work 
very  hard,  with  a  continually  sinking  rupee  to  make  a  liveli- 
hood. Mr  John  Stevens,  who  was  a  horse  importer  and  a 
captain  in  the  New  Zealand  Cavalry,  was  a  great  friend  of 
ours.  He  had  been  a  Government  interpreter  among  the 
Maoris,  and  had  many  stories  to  tell  about  those  people.  On 
one  occasion,  a  native  chief,  who  was  under  cross-examina- 
tion in  court,  on  being  asked  why  he  had  not  brought  a 


Teddy  We  ekes.  193 

certain  man  with  him,  replied,  *  I  have  brought  him.'  *  But,' 
said  the  barrister,  looking  in  vain  round  the  court,  *  I  don't 
see  him.  Where  is  he  ?  '  '  He  is  here]  chuckled  the  Maori 
proudly,  stroking  his  own  well-filled  abdomen.  According 
to  Mr  Stevens,  who  is  one  of  the  greatest  authorities  on  all 
Maori  questions,  these  dusky  islanders  imagine  that  they  can 
absorb  into  themselves  all  the  good  qualities  of  those  whom 
they  eat  No  doubt  it  was  this  general  idea  that  prompted 
his  postman,  on  one  occasion,  to  chew  and  swallow  the  news- 
paper which  it  was  his  duty  to  fetch  from  a  distant  post 
office.  The  man,  not  having  any  conception  of  the  operation 
of  reading,  could  not  imagine  how  his  master  became  ac- 
quainted with  its  contents,  except  on  the  supposition  that  Mr 
Stevens  ate  it ;  so  he  accordingly  transferred  it  from  his  bag 
to  his  stomach.  When  he  arrived  with  an  empty  post  bag 
and  a  full  stomach,  Mr  Stevens  asked  him  where  was  the 
paper.  The  Maori  explained  that  he  had  eaten  it,  and  that 
he  would  tell  him  all  the  news  as  soon  as  he  had  digested  it. 

The  greatest  '  character '  among  all  the  shippers,  was 
Teddy  Weekes,  who  died  a  few  years  ago.  He  had  an 
extraordinary  number  of  failings,  which  are  luckily  buried 
with  him.  His  '  language '  was  loud,  copious  and  foul,  and 
his  habits  were  horrible ;  but  he  had  the  redeeming  point  of 
being  a  thorough  sportsman.  He  was  not  necessarily  one, 
because  he  lived  only  for  horses  and  gambling,  or  because  the 
dearest  spot  on  earth  to  him  was  a  racecourse ;  but  he  well 
merited  that  name  for  the  stoical  manner  in  which  he  met 
reverses  of  fortune  in  the  backing  of  horses.  His  losses 
seemed  to  act  like  a  powerful  tonic  on  the  little,  fat,  bloated 
man.  One  night  about  five  years  ago  he  took  a  plunge  to 
the  amount  of  £1200,  and  lost  it  in  the  following  afternoon 
by  the  horse  which  he  had  backed  getting  beaten.  It  is  only 
fair  to  him  to  say  that  he  would  not  have  risked  losing  a  sum 
he  was  unable  to  pay,  had  he  not  dined  too  well.  Instead  of 
being  cast  down  or  attempting  to  shirk  his  liabilities,  he 
brightened  himself  up,  returned  to  Australia,  worked  like  a 

N 


1 94  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

slave,  brought  back  a  shipload  of  horses,  sold  them,  paid  his 
debts,  and  returned  to  the  betting  ring  beaming  with  delight 
to  find  himself  again  in  his  old  paradise.  He  was  the  only 
one  of  his  low  class  of  racing  men  whom  I  have  ever  met 
that  loved  a  genuine  straight-away  match,  for  its  own  sake 
more  than  for  the  money  dependent  on  it.  Of  the  many  oc- 
casions I  have  seen  him  *  lead  in '  a  winner,  I  have  never 
seen  poor  Teddy  so  pleased,  although  he  did  not  gain  a 
farthing  on  the  transaction,  as  when  my  wife  won  a  jumping 
prize  against  all  comers  in  Calcutta  four  years  ago  on  his 
clever  pony  mare,  Mamma.  His  joy  was  on  account  of  his 
pony  having  defeated  the  best  horses  which  his  rival  dealers 
could  bring  against  it  Teddy,  who  had  been  a  fine  horse- 
man before  he  became  inordinately  fat  from  too  free  living, 
liked,  during  a  sale  of  his  horses,  to  get  the  leaping  bar  put 
up  to  a  respectable  height,  and  having  mounted  one  of  the 
animals  with  more  assumed  than  real  difficulty,  would  take 
the  obstacle  in  good  style,  to  show  the  people,  as  he  would 
explain,  how  clever  his  horses  must  be  to  jump  with  a  fat  old 
man  like  himself.  And  then  he  would  describe  in  a  manner 
few  could  resist,  how  marvellously  the  animal  would  perform 
over  a  country  with  any  of  the  on-looking  jeunesse  doree  on 
its  back. 

The  most  of  the  older  shippers  had  come  from  England 
or  Ireland  in  their  youth,  and  had  worked  their  way  on  in 
the  Colonies.  The  only  regular  London  dealer  in  the  whole 
lot  was  Kerouse,  whose  people  kept  a  livery  and  commission 
stable  in  Edgeware  Road.  He  used  to  bring  out  cart  horses 
from  England  to  New  Zealand  and  Australia,  and  then  used 
to  work  back  via  Calcutta  or  Madras,  with  a  shipment  of 
Colonial  horses.  He  was  certainly  the  cleverest  man  in  that 
trade  at  inducing  a  shy  man  to  part  with  his  money  ;  but 
then  we  must  recollect  that  he  had  a  London  training.  He 
had  not  a  thought  in  the  world  except  for  horses,  pure  and 
simple.  *  It  was  as  good  as  a  play '  listening  to  him  when 
he  was  explaining  to  would-be  purchasers  how  his  '  five-year- 


Sprains  of  the  Forelegs.  »  195 

olds '  had  lost  all  the  *  marks '  in  their  teeth  by  grazing  on 
pasturage  the  sand  of  which  used  to  grind  down  the  teeth, 
so  he  said,  in  less  than  no  time  ;  and  how  the  absence  of 
hair  on  the  knees  of  some  of  his  animals  was  merely  the  tem- 
porary result  of  their  sleeping  in  stalls  which  had  not  a  suffi- 
ciency of  straw  bedding.  The  poor  fellow  died  miserably 
from  cancer  in  the  throat;  yet  so  strong  was  his  ruling  passion 
even  in  the  presence  of  death,  that  when  the  friend  who  was 
tending  him  wanted  to  send,  on  the  day  before  he  died,  a 
servant  to  stop  the  noise  of  .some  horsebreaking  that  was 
going  on  in  the  yard  below  the  sick  man's  room,  poor  Ker- 
ouse,  overhearing  what  was  said,  feebly  whispered :  *  Let 
them  be.  I  love  to  hear  the  sound  of  the  horses.' 

In  India,  practically,  the  whole  of  the  heavy  cart  work 
is  done  with  bullocks,  and  in  a  few  cases  with  buffaloes. 
There  is  little  or  no  van  work,  and  carriage  horses  are  not 
put  to  any  great  toil.  Consequently,  the  bulk  of  serious 
veterinary  cases  are  those  of  sprain  to  tendon  and  ligament 
in  saddle  horses  and  especially  among  racehorses.  Acting 
on  the  advice  of  Dr  Henderson  of  Shanghai,  I  had  great 
success  during  my  stay  at  Calcutta,  in  the  treatment  of 
these  injuries  to  the  forelegs,  by  means  of  cotton-wool 
bandaging,  an  account  of  which  will  be  found  in  my  Veter- 
inary Notes.  I  positively  assert  that  out  of  the  hundreds 
of  cases  of  sprain  to  the  back  tendons,  suspensory  ligaments 
and  check  ligaments  of  the  forelegs  treated  in  the  supposed 
orthodox  method  by  warm  water  fomentations,  cold  water 
applications,  and  the  use  of  liniments,  blisters,  etc.,  I  have 
not  seen  a  single  instance  of  a  return  to  soundness,  which 
implies  entire  absence  of  perceptible  alteration  of  structure, 
as  would  be  shown  by  '  thickening.'  I  may  go  further  and 
say  that  I  have  never  seen  any  permanent  good  result  from 
the  application  of  either  hot  or  cold  water  to  a  sprained  part. 
The  experience  of  every  trainer  is  that  such  sprains  are  the 
beginning  of  the  end  ;  and  that  their  treatment  in  the  old 
style  is,  at  best,  the  temporary  patching  up  of  a  permanently 


196  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

weak  spot.  I  have  found,  on  the  contrary,  that  properly 
applied  cotton-wool  bandaging  in  connection  with  well- 
regulated  massage  will,  as  a  rule,  if  employed  early,  restore 
such  sprained  parts  to  a  sound  condition.  A  large  number 
of  trainers  and  owners  in  India  have  adopted  with  great 
success  this  method  of  treating  such  sprains.  In  course  of 
time,  it  will,  no  doubt,  become  popular  in  England.  Prior 
to  meeting  Dr  Henderson,  I  often  utilised,  with  good  results, 
the  effect  of  pressure  on  sprained  parts  by  means  of  a  com- 
bined bandage  and  'charge,'  with  which,  however,  I  was 
unable  to  massage  the  injured  structure.  One  great  beauty 
of  this  cotton-wool  treatment  is  that  instead  of  keeping  men 
up  all  night  or  employed  all  day  bathing,  fomenting,  irrigat- 
ing, or  applying  lotions,  liniments  or  embrocations  to  a  bad 
leg ;  not  more  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour  is  required  to 
massage  the  part  and  to  put  on  the  bandage,  after  which 
the  horse  may  be  left,  without  any  fear  of  ill  results  accruing, 
for  twenty-four  or  even  forty-eight  hours.  The  good  effects 
of  this  treatment  for  injuries  which  form  the  large  majority 
of  those  that  unfit  saddle  horses  for  work,  manifest  them- 
selves in  a  surprisingly  short  time.  I  need  hardly  say  that 
this  method  of  bandaging  cannot  cure  a  sprain  ;  but  it  can 
place  the  injured  parts  in  the  best  possible  position  to 
become  cured  by  the  various  reparatory  functions  of  the 
body.  Cotton-wool  has  no  mysterious  curative  power;  but 
is  merely  a  convenient  agent  for  distributing  the  effects  of 
pressure. 

Besides  horse-dealing  and  occasional  breaking,  I  trained 
several  horses  with  a  fair  share  of  success.  At  Calcutta, 
which  is  the  great  Indian  turf  metropolis,  the  racing  is  well 
managed,  and  liberal  prizes  are  given.  Having  confidence 
in  the  capacity  and  rectitude  of  the  stewards,  the  public 
attend  the  meetings  with  all  their  spare  cash  in  their  pockets 
to  back  their  fancy ;  and,  accordingly,  to  supply  the  demand 
men  like  Bob  Topping,  Miller  and  Brittain,  who  'field' 
during  the  summer  in  Italy,  Archer,  Crouch,  who  is  well- 


Lord  William  Beresford.  197 

known  on  French  racecourses,  and  several  other  '  layers ' 
come  to  Calcutta  for  the  racing  season  which  begins  about 
the  1st  December  and  finishes  about  the  end  of  February. 
The  legitimate  part  of  the  programmes  is  varied  with  pony 
events,  which  are  probably  the  most  important  feature  of 
Indian  racing.  There  are  some  hurdle  races,  and  two  or 
three  days  are  devoted  to  chasing.  As  I  have  discussed 
in  The  Points  of  the  Horse  the  respective  racing  merits  of 
English  and  Colonial  animals;  I  need  here  only  briefly 
remark  that  English  ponies  have  shown  a  marked  supe- 
riority over  Colonial  ones  on  the  Indian  turf.  As  to  the 
horses,  the  question  is  somewhat  more  difficult  to  decide. 
I  may  state,  however,  with  confidence,  that  for  equal  sums, 
say,  up  to  .£1500,  which  would  be  about  the  usual  Indian 
limit,  better  horses  can  be  bought  in  Australia  than  in  Eng- 
land. Besides  this,  it  is  easier  and  cheaper  to  bring  horses 
to  India  from  the  former  country  than  from  the  latter. 
Furthermore,  Colonial  horses  have,  as  a  rule,  better  legs 
and  feet  than  English  animals.  Considering  the  care  that 
is  taken  of  valuable  horses,  I  do  not  think  that  there  is 
any  appreciable  difference  between  the  way  these  two  classes 
stand  the  Indian  climate.  Lord  William  Beresford,  who  has 
been  a  prominent  figure  on  the  Indian  turf  for  several  years, 
has  generally  relied  on  English  horses ;  because,  I  presume, 
his  brother  Lord  Marcus,  was  in  a  good  position  to  supply 
him  with  the  required  sort  of  cattle.  His  great  rivals,  the 
Armenian  house  of  Apcar,  'go  in'  almost  exclusively  for 
Australians ;  because,  I  venture  to  think,  their  trainers  are 
generally  Colonials.  Lord  William  is  an  admirable  busi- 
ness man  and  on  account  of  his  capacity  for  arranging 
functions  of  various  kinds,  was  retained  as  Military  Sec- 
retary many  years  beyond  the  usual  allowance.  He  has 
always  had  a  dusky  Baron  Hirsch  or  two  in  training,  and  has 
supplied  more  horses  to  the  native  princes,  than  all  the  other 
dealers  put  together.  He  is  a  strange  anomaly.  Generous, 
brave  and  with  a  '  heart  as  big  as  a  house/  he  sometimes 


198  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

does  such  funny  things  at  racing  that  he  might  be  thought, 
even  out  of  India,  grasping,  if  not  'thick ';  and  yet,  a  moment 
after,  he  would  be  ready  to  give  the  money  thus  won  and 
more  besides,  if  an  appeal  for  any  deserving  object  were 
made  to  his  good-nature.  The  explanation  of  these  seem- 
ing contradictions  in  his  character,  appear  to  be  that  the 
spirit  of  rivalry  is  so  strong  in  him  that  he  is  apt  to  take 
the  readiest  means  to  be  first  in  every  contest. 

The  paper-chasing  which  is  carried  on  at  Calcutta  during  the 
cold  weather  furnishes  good  sport.  The  country  is  a  c  made ' 
one,  and  the  jumps,  which  are  principally  stiff  mud  walls, 
and  hurdles  about  twenty  in  number,  varying  in  height  from 

3  feet  6  inches  to  4  feet  4  inches.     The  distance  is  from  3  to 

4  miles,  and  the  pace  is  as  fast  as  the  horses  can  go.     From  this 
description  my  readers  will  see   that  this   paper-hunting   is 
a  close  imitation  of  steeple-chasing.     The  horses  are  almost 
all  well  bred  or  thoroughbred  Colonials.     There  are  big  fields, 
often  from  forty  to  fifty  starters,  of  whom  there  is  always  a  fair 
proportion  of  ladies.     At  Lucknow,  under  the  management 
of  the  i6th  Lancers  and  i8th  Royal  Irish,  the  paper  chasing 
was  conducted  on  the  same  lines,  except  that  the  course  was 
flagged  out,  instead  of  paper  being  laid  down.     I  very  rarely 
attended  any  of  these  events  ;  for  my  time  in  the  early  morn- 
ings  was  always  occupied  by  the  horses  I  had  in  training. 
My  wife,  however,  was  a  very  keen  paper-chaser.      On   the 
mornings  of  the  meet  she  used  to  be  up  at  five  o'clock,  and 
having  dressed  and  had  her  cup  of  tea  and  slice  of  hot  buttered 
toast,  went  off  in  her  dog-cart  to  find  her  horse  ready  saddled 
at  the  starting-post.     The  word  'go'  was  uttered    not  later 
than  seven  o'clock,  and  then  ensued  an  amount  of  hard  and 
zealous  riding  which  would  genuinely  surprise  many  an  old  fox- 
hunter,  could  he  but  see  it.     These  Australasian  horses,  even 
when  only  lately  landed,  are  wonderful  jumpers,  principally,  I 
think,  from  the  lightness  and  obliquity  of  their  shoulders.     It 
certainly  appears  to  me  that  the  fact  of  the  large  majority  of 
them  being  allowed  to  wander  over  large  tracts  of  country  in 


Breaking  to  Harness.  1 99 

a  state  of  perfect  liberty  during  their  youth,  say,  up  to  four 
years  of  age,  confers  on  them  great  freedom  of  shoulder  as 
well  as  soundness  of  limb.  I  am  also  under  the  impression 
that  horses  brought  up  on  hilly  ground  have  better  shoulders 
than  those  reared  on  level  soil. 

Calcutta  affords  to  its  inhabitants  unrivalled  facilities  for 
breaking  horses  either  to  saddle  or  harness ;  for  it  has, 
between  the  English  part  of  the  town  and  the  river  Hooghly, 
a  level  plain  of  about  three  square  miles  in  area,  over  which 
everyone  is  free  to  ride ;  and  there  is  an  ample  space  set  off 
for  the  breaking  of  horses  to  harness.  For  making  animals 
quiet  to  carriage  work,  some  of  my  Colonial  dealer  friends 
used  to  employ  an  ingeniously-constructed  trap,  called  a 
'  jingle,'  which  had  such  long  shafts  that  if  the  horse  which 
was  harnessed  to  it  began  to  kick,  he  could  not  reach  either 
the  splinter  bar  or  the  body  of  it  with  his  heels.  I  need 
hardly  tell  any  experienced  breaker  that  few  things  make  a 
horse  stop  kicking  so  soon  and  so  effectively,  as  finding  that 
he  has  nothing  to  kick  against.  Another  great  beauty  in  it 
is  that  the  weight  put  on  the  animal's  back  by  the  shafts  can 
be  easily  regulated.  Here  again,  the  well-taught  breaksman 
will  agree  with  me  that  the  unaccustomed  feeling  of  weight 
on  the  back  is  a  strong  provocation  to  a  young  one  to  kick 
or  plunge.  A  third  excellence  in  the  jingle,  which  should 
not  be  despised,  is  that,  in  the  event  of  an  accident  or  of  the 
horse  becoming  unmanageable,  the  driver  can  readily  get  out 
from  the  rear  part  of  the  conveyance  !  I  have  been  told  that 
the  jingle  is  an  American  invention. 

In  India,  everybody  who,  so  to  speak,  is  anybody,  keeps 
horses  and  rides  at  least  once  if  not  twice  a  day  all  the  year 
round.  There,  one's  friends  are  always  ready  to  lend  one 
horses.  There  is  no  law  of  trespass,  and,  consequently  hack- 
ing along  the  road  is  the  exception  instead  of  the  rule. 
These  are  the  causes,  no  doubt,  which  make  the  percentage 
of  capable  horsewomen  and  horsemen  larger  in  India  than 
in  England,  where  not  more  than  one  in  twenty  even  out  of 


2OO  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

the  few  who  go  hunting  ride  '  straight.'  In  fact,  the  differ- 
ence is  entirely  one  of  practice.  Very  few  of  the  young 
fellows  who  come  out  to  India,  know  anything  about  riding 
on  their  first  arrival,  or,  indeed,  have  ever  been  on  a  horse 
except  in  a  riding-school ;  but  after  they  have  served  their 
year's  '  griffinage,'  we  shall  find  that  the  majority  of  them  own 
ponies  or  horses,  play  polo,  pigstick,  paper-chase,  race,  chase, 
or  at  least  take  their  part  in  the  station  gymkhanas. 


Photo,  by  H.  R.  Sherborn,  Newmarket. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

Frank  Fillis — Bill  Hayes — Mickey  Miley — Horse  Photography — Journalism 
in  India — Shows  in  India — Mr  Woodyear — Arthur  Hancock — Captain 
Astley,  *  The  Mates' '  Brother. 

DURING  the  last  season  we  spent  in  Calcutta,  we  saw 
a  good  deal  of  Frank  Fillis  who  had  recently  come 
with  his  circus  from  South  Africa,  where  he  had  made  two  or 
three  fortunes,  and  lost  them  in  the  crash  which  took  place 
after  the  mining  boom.  He  is  nephew  of  the  famous  James 
Fillis,  who  is  the  greatest  living  exponent  of  the  French 
high  school  of  riding,  and  who  happens  to  be  a  Londoner. 
Frank  Fillis  is  a  capital  circus  rider,  does  the  '  jockey  act '  to 
perfection,  is  a  good  trainer,  fine  horseman,  and  is  a  wonder- 
fully hard-working  fellow.  He  is  a  man  of  big  ideas,  and 
never  counts  the  cost  so  long  as  he  can  give  the  public  a 
good  show.  He  had  a  great  deal  to  tell  me  about  South 
Africa,  where  he  advised  us  to  go,  especially  after  he  had 


201 


2O2  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

seen  a  couple  of  performances  which  we  gave  in  his  circus. 
His  accounts  of  the  fondness  of  Africanders  for  horses  and 
of  the  numbers  of  wild  ones  to  be  found  on  the  veldt  de- 
cided us  on  making  a  trip  to  the  land  of  the  Boers. 

Our  house  in  Calcutta  was  a  place  of  call  for  all  poor  and 
distressed  sportsmen.  One  day  a  bright-looking  lad  of  about 
twenty  came  in  during  morning  stables.  He  told  me  that  he 
had  worked  his  passage  out  from  England  as  a  fireman  on 
board  a  steamer  ;  that  he  had  been  in  a  racing  stable  and  had 
ridden  some  races  on  the  Continent ;  and  that  he  wanted  a 
job.  As  he  was  a  nice  light  weight  and  looked  a  smart,  cheery 
boy,  I  told  him  that  he  could  find  a  room,  bed,  knife  and  fork 
in  the  house,  and  that  we  would  go  for  a  ride  in  the  evening  ; 
for  of  course  I  wanted  to  see  how  he  c  shaped '  on  a  horse. 
What  a  boy  that  was  !  Fine,  strong  horseman,  with  a  heart 
that  knew  no  fear,  and  a  feeling  on  the  reins  as  light,  yet  firm 
as  that  of  Jack  Roberts  on  a  billiard  cue.  Bill,  who  happened 
to  have  the  same  surname  as  I,  showed  in  every  possible  way 
his  gratitude  for  the  small  kindness  I  had  done  him,  and  was 
so  willing  and  devoted  that  he  quite  won  my  heart  I  man- 
aged to  give  him  a  winning  mount  in  a  hurdle  race,  and  with 
that  start,  he  got  several  other  mounts,  and  saved  ,£50  or  £60 
in  the  first  month.  At  that  time  a  great  friend  of  mine,  a  New 
Zealand  shipper,  Mr  John  Stevens,  asked  me  to  let  Bill  go  up 
country  with  him  to  ride  his  horses.  Knowing  that  the  lad 
would  do  anything  I  told  him,  I  felt  greatly  tempted  to  keep 
him  with  me  ;  but  as  it  was  to  his  interest  to  go  with  Mr 
Stevens,  I  consented  with  a  heavy  heart ;  for  the  boy  was  so 
fearless  that  I  was  afraid  to  let  him  out  of  my  sight.  I  begged 
him  not  to  ride  anything  over  hurdles  or  across  country  that 
he  was  not  certain  had  been  well  schooled  ;  for  I  knew  that 
many  owners  of  unsafe  horses  are  cruelly  indifferent  to  the 
risks  men  run  in  riding  their  brutes.  The  promise  was  lightly 
given.  Poor  Bill,  knowing  no  fear,  got  a  mount  on  a  man- 
slayer  in  a  chase,  with  the  assurance  that  *  he  is  as  safe  as  the 
bank/  The  clumsy,  treacherous  cur  fell  at  a  fence.  Bill  was 


My  Jockeys.  203 

picked  up  badly  shaken  ;  but  he  struggled  against  his  pain. 
He  tried  to  ride  at  exercise  and  do  his  work  as  usual ;  but 
he  caught  cold  and  got  worse.  Mr  Stevens  wished  him  to 
'  lay  up ' ;  but  he  made  light  of  his  trouble.  One  morning 
he  kept  so  very  still  that  a  servant  who  was  passing  through 
the  room  looked  at  him,  and  found  that  the  boy  was  dead. 
We  were  terribly  shocked  at  the  news,  the  bitterness  of  which 
I  had  felt  in  anticipation  when  I  said  good-bye  to  him.  The 
worst  of  it  was  that  he  had  told  me  his  mother  was  living ;  but 
I  forgot  to  get  her  address.  I  have  told  his  story  here  in  the 
sad  hope  that  she  may  at  least  know  that  in  the  strange  land 
where  he  died,  he  had  warm  and  attached  friends  who  deeply 
mourned  his  loss. 

My  jockeys  were  inclined  to  be  unlucky.  One  of  them, 
poor  Mickey  Miley,  whose  father  used  to  train  on  the  Cur- 
ragh,  and  who  was  formerly  well  known  in  Ireland  as  a  clever 
light  weight,  went  'on  the  spree/  got  small-pox  and  died. 
Mick  belonged  to  a  lovable,  easy-going  type  of  Irishman. 
'  He  wouldn't  hurt  a  fly ' ;  'he  would  give'  you  the  coat  off 
his  back';  he  had  nice  manners;  was  anxious  to  oblige; 
and  would  do  anything  one  asked  him,  except  to  look  after 
his  own  interests.  Young  Mr  Malitte,  who  was  on  the  staff 
of  my  paper,  and  who  also  lived  with  us,  was  one  of  the  best 
non-professionals  in  India,  and  could  ride  7  st.  10  Ibs.  without 
wasting.  He  got  killed  by  accident  when  riding  a  training 
gallop.  Geo.  Gooch,  a  famous  old-time  Indian  jockey,  on 
whom  I  tried  various  infallible  systems  for  the  cure  of  in- 
ebrity,  at  last '  broke  out '  again.  When  he  came  to  himself, 
he  showed  his  repentance  by  taking  poison  ;  but  was  brought 
round  sufficiently  to  enable  him  to  spend  the  remainder  of  his 
days  in  a  workhouse.  In  India,  any  fairly  good  jockey  who 
can  ride  8  stone  will  do  well ;  provided  he  keeps  steady ;  but 
that's  the  difficulty.  As  a  rule,  to  quote  the  old  wheese :  they 
eat,  and  they  drink,  and  they  die,  and  then  they  write  home 
and  say  that  it  is  the  climate  that  lulls  them. 

As  I  had  learned  a  little  about  photography  soon  after  I 


204  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

had  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr  Oswald  Brown  in  New- 
market ;  I  diligently  applied  myself  during  our  residence  in 
Calcutta  to  obtaining  photographs  for  illustrating  my  book, 
The  Points  of  the  Horse,  with  which  I  had  long  threatened 
the  reading  public.  Getting  characteristic  horses  and  animals 
with  the  required  '  points,' bad  and  good,  is  a  very  difficult 
matter,  especially,  as  exaggeration  in  many  of  such  *  points ! 
would  suggest  caricature,  which  would  of  course  be  cut  of 
place  in  a  serious  work.  Being  on  the  best  of  terms  with  the 
'shippers,'  local  dealers,  officers  commanding  cavalry  regi- 
ments and  other  horse  owners,  I  was  enabled  to  '  run  my 
eye '  over,  literally,  thousands  of  horses  from  which  to  select 
specimens  for  my  camera.  In  England,  men  are  as  chary  of 
allowing  one  to  take  such  liberties  with  their  horses,  as  they 
would  be  with  their  wives  ;  but  in  India  and  the  Colonies, 
they  are  less  suspicious  and  more  obliging.  As  regards  the 
portraiture  of  animals  for  purposes  of  comparison,  I  had  long 
got  hold  of  the  correct  idea,  namely,  that  they  should  be  in 
profile.  The  broad  Maidan  or  plain  of  Calcutta,  with  its 
tropical  wealth  of  sunshine,  afforded  me  unsurpassed  oppor- 
tunities for  photographing  horses.  On  this  level  ground  and 
with  a  far  distant  horizon  but  little  broken  by  trees  or  build- 
ings, I  could  hardly  help  'taking'  my  subjects  against  the 
sky,  and  having  done  this,  once  or  twice,  I  could  still  less 
resist  arriving  at  the  conclusion  that  a  horse  looks  best  in  a 
photograph,  standing  out  boldly  from  his  surroundings,  when 
thus  posed.  Contrary  to  my  expectation,  I  found  that  even 
white  horses  appeared  to  most  advantage  with  the  back- 
ground arranged  in  this  manner.  I  also  learned  that  by 
placing,  in  the  centre  of  a  plain,  a  horse  which  one  wanted  to 
photograph  ;  the  gregarious  animal  would  instinctively  look 
out  in  all  directions  for  members  of  his  own  species,  and 
would  consequently  hold  himself  prouder  than  if  he  were 
standing  close  to  his  own  stable,  or  at  some  accustomed 
halting-place.  In  all  these  cases,  I  tried  to  obtain  a  photo- 
graph of  the  horse  and  not  one  of  his  surroundings,  which 


Photography.  205 

appears  to  be  the  object  of  those  sun  artists  who  subordinate 
the  animal  to  the  hall  door  or  porch  against  which  he  is 
placed,  and  to  the  friends  and  relations  who  desire  to  be 
included  in  the  group.  I  soon  rejected  a  fixed  camera  in 
favour  of  a  hand  one,  with  which  I  could  move  about,  and  thus 
suit  my  position  to  that  taken  by  the  horse.  This  ability  was 
specially  necessary  to  me  in  my  endeavour  to  get  all  the 
portraits  in  as  exact  profile  as  possible,  in  which  attempt,  a 
foot  or  two,  one  way  or  the  other,  might  make  all  the  differ- 
ence between  a  failure  and  a  success.  Besides,  with  a  hand 
camera,  one  can,  as  one  may  see  fit,  lower  or  raise  the 
machine,  for  instance,  to  clear  the  animal's  head  from  a  dis- 
tant tree  or  other  object.  In  the  class  of  work  which  I  had 
on  hand,  the  superior  mobility  of  the  hand  camera  greatly 
outweighs,  as  far  as  my  experience  goes,  any  advantages 
over  it  which  the  fixed  one  may  possess.  We  must  re- 
member that  a  horse  retains  only  for  a  few  seconds  any 
position  he  may  take  up,  when  he  is  in  an  attentive,  if  not 
excited  mood,  in  which  he  alone  looks  well ;  and  that,  for  him 
to  appear  to  advantage,  he  must  have  his  ears  pricked  for- 
ward, which  he  will  continue  to  do  only  for  a  brief  period 
of  time. 

My  progress,  which  I  am  afraid  was  not  very  consider- 
able, in  the  study  of  photography,  was  greatly  facilitated  by 
the  fact  of  my  belonging  to  the  Photographic  Association  of 
India,  the  members  of  which  are  always  ready  to  lend  a  help- 
ing-hand to  their  weaker  brethren.  To  the  local  members, 
this,  as  all  such  associations  should  be,  is,  essentially,  a  dark- 
room club,  at  which  the  student  is  almost  always  certain  to 
meet  one  or  more  of  his  confreres  from  whom  to  obtain  prac- 
tical as  well  as  theoretical  help  and  advice. 

Although  the  English  residents  in  India  are  very  small  in 
number,  and  are  widely  distributed  through  that  vast  empire, 
they  are,  as  a  rule,  well  educated,  and  consequently  the  local 
English  journals  have  a  high  standard  of  literary  excellence. 
The  leading  daily  papers  are  the  Times  of  India,  The  Pioneer, 


2o6  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

The  Civil  and  Military  Gazette,  The  Englishman,  The  Bombay 
Gazette,  and  The  Madras  Mail  All  these  journals  cater  for 
the  decided  taste  which  their  readers  have  for  horses  and 
sport.  The  Asian  is  not  an  unworthy  Indian  Field,  and 
The  Indian  Planters'  Gazette  is  a  bright  record  of  sport 
and  of  the  doings  of  Calcutta  society,  as  well  as  an  able 
mouthpiece  of  the  class  which  it  represents. 

India  is  a  favourite  hunting  ground  for  showmen.  The 
Indian  public  being  a  small  one,  luckily  does  not  demand 
large  companies  and  expensive  staging.  Being  composed 
chiefly  of  well-read  men  and  women,  it  is  fastidious  ;  but  if 
there  be  merit  in  a  show,  it  will  not  object  to  the  perform- 
ance being  short ;  for  it  does  not  finish  its  dinner  before  nine 
o'clock,  and  likes  to  get  home  by  eleven,  so  as  to  be  up  by 
daybreak  for  a  ride  or  drive.  Among  capable  showmen,  I 
may  mention  the  names  of  Tommy  Hudson,  Frank  Lincoln, 
George  Milne  and  Charlie  Harding.  The  play-going  re- 
quirements of  the  natives  are  best  met  by  a  circus.  Poor 
Woodyear,  who  had  been  doing  big  business  at  Hong  Kong 
when  we  met  him  there,  brought  his  circus  to  Calcutta,  but 
died  from  cholera  not  long  after  his  arrival.  Having  been  in 
the  show  line  myself,  I  went  with  a  heavy  heart  to  the 
funeral.  As  the  Calcutta  people  do  not  trouble  themselves 
much  about  funerals,  only  one  of  them,  besides  my  sub-editor 
and  myself,  was  present.  When  the  sad-faced  procession 
had  formed  up  on  the  road  in  front  of  the  cemetery,  the  black 
professional  mutes  proceeded  to  take  down  the  coffin  from 
the  hearse  and  to  bear  it  to  the  grave,  while  the  real  mourners 
unused  to  the  scene  and  place  looked  helplessly  on.  Though 
a  comparative  stranger,  I  thought  I  might  render  to  the  dead, 
respectful  homage  which  might  be  acceptable  to  those  that 
wept  for  their  dear  friend  and  master,  and  accordingly  gave 
the  lead  to  have  the  poor  fellow  carried  to  his  last  resting- 
place  on  the  shoulders  of  white  men.  There  was  not  a  dry 
eye  among  the  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  the  troupe  who  stood 
round  the  grave.  I  hope,  though  cannot  expect,  that  I  may 


Arthur  Hancock.  207 

have  at  my  funeral  as  sincere  mourners  as  the  clowns,  athletesj 
trick  riders  and  ring  men  who  stood  with  tearful  faces  and 
bowed  heads  that  December  afternoon,  while  the  clergymen 
read  the  Burial  Service  over  the  remains  of  poor  William 
Woodyear.  The  scene  was  very,  very  sad. 

One  morning  about  this  time,  three  travel-stained  and 
thirsty-looking  men  called  at  my  office.  I  offered  them 
chairs,  the  usual  whisky  and  soda,  and  asked  them  to  tell 
me  their  tale,  which  was  as  follows  :  They  had  just  come 
from  Natal,  and  on  landing  that  morning  from  their  steamer 
in  search  of  what  my  friends  of  52  Fleet  Street  would  call 
the  '  oof  bird,'  they  inquired  if  there  was  anyone  who  would 
help  them  in  their  designs,  and  were  accordingly  directed  on 
to  me.  Two  were  jockeys  out  of  work  ;  the  other  was  Arthur 
Hancock,  the  once  famous  walker.  One  of  the  knights  of  the 
pigskin,  Joe  Hardy,  stayed  in  India,  had  good  '  chances '  and 
has  done  fairly  well.  The  other,  Martin,  went,  I  believe,  to 
England.  I  got  up  two  or  three  contests  for  Hancock,  who, 
acting  on  the  principle  that  money  earned  in  a  country 
should  be  spent  in  it,  paid  over  the  bar  of  the  nearest  public 
house,  the  £100  or  more  he  might  have  taken  away  with  him 
from  Calcutta.  I  was  very  sorry  for  Hancock  ;  but  he  was 
quite  *  impossible.'  The  decay  of  those  athletes  who  only 
think  of  the  present,  is  almost  as  sad  as  that  of  improvident 
demi-mondaines.  Hancock  was  a  grand  walker ;  but  had 
as  much  capacity  for  making  money  out  of  his  long-distance 
powers  as  a  racehorse  would  have  of  '  working  '  a  commission. 
The  only  chance  such  men  have  of  doing  any  *  good,'  is  to 
put  themselves  in  the  hands  of  a  '  gaffer/  who  would  treat  and 
train  them  as  if  they  were  dogs  or  horses,  and  who  on  making 
a  coup  by  their  assistance  would  probably  pocket  the  entire 
proceeds  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  enough  to  buy  a 
hand-me-down  suit  of  clothes  and  a  couple  of  bottles  of 
whisky.  Hancock  had  tried  America,  South  Africa,  and,  I 
believe,  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  without  materially  bene- 
fiting himself.  Goodness  only  knows  what  made  him  pitch 


208  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

on  India,  in  which  country  the  very  thought  of  walking  gives 
one  prickly  heat.  Finding  that  a  little  of  it  went  a  long  way 
in  Calcutta,  I  passed  Hancock  on  to  my  friend,  Captain 
Astley,  '  the  Mates' '  brother,  who,  like  a  true  sportsman,  is 
always  ready  to  help  a  lame  dog  over  a  stile. 

Captain  Astley  remains  absolutely  unspoiled  by  the  snob- 
ishness  and  slavish  regard  to  conventional  ideas  which 
surround  us  on  every  side ;  and  is  consequently  refreshingly 
different  from  ordinary  '  sealed-pattern  '  men,  who  remind  me 
of  the  story  told  about  the  last  joined  subaltern  that  alto- 
gether failed  to  learn  the  names  of  his  company  ;  because, 
so  he  pleaded  to  his  captain,  they  were  all  dressed  so  much 
alike.  '  The  Mates' '  brother  is  the  greatest  living  authority 
on  cock-fighting.  For  many  years  he  has  kept  in  India 
hundreds  of  *  war  birds,'  with  which  he  spends  most  of  his 
spare  time  fighting  matches  and  mains  at  Lucknow  and 
other  great  centres  of  cocking,  against  the  birds  of  Native 
princes  and  fanciers,  who  justly  regard  him  as  the  grand- 
master of  their  craft.  He  is  an  enemy  of  humbug  ;  is  no 
respecter  of  persons  ;  has  a  marvellous  fund  of  quaint  and 
original  anecdote  ;  and  has  been  a  kind  friend  to  me,  and 
to  many  more  deserving  objects. 

Captain  Astley,  who  is  now  in  the  Pay  Department,  is  an 
old  nth  Foot  man.  He  is  a  slight,  rather  tall,  active-looking 
man,  with  greyish  hair,  clean-cut,  well-bred  features,  pleasant 
smile,  and  an  upright,  distinguished  bearing.  When  he  first 
went  to  Meerut,  where  his  regiment  was  stationed,  he  arrived 
with  about  500  fighting  cocks,  the  noise  of  whose  crowing  was 
so  loud,  that  the  inquisitive  ladies  of  the  place  sent  emissaries 
to  find  out  what  Captain  Astley  wanted  with  such  an  enor- 
mous poultry  yard.  He  gravely  informed  his  questioners 
that  he  kept  it,  so  as  to  have  a  constant  supply  of  fresh  eggs, 
which  were  the  only  food  allowed  to  him  by  his  doctor.  The 
ladies  thereupon  intimated  that  they,  too,  would  like  to  eat 
fresh  eggs  ;  but  he  explained  that  his  hens  (which  were  all 
cocks)  laid  only  just  enough  for  his  own  requirements, 


Captain  Astley.  209 

especially  as  he  was  learning  to  crow,  and  consequently 
needed  a  vast  quantity  of  eggs  from  which  to  obtain  the 
proper  tone  of  voice.  This  news  greatly  excited  the  interest 
of  the  ladies,  who  did  everything  they  could  to  watch  the 
movements  of  Captain  Astley,  as  they  expected  at  any 
moment  to  see  him  draw  himself  up  on  tip-toe,  flap  his 
arms  and  play  the  part  of  loud-voiced  chanticleer.  To  him 
the  best  part  of  the  joke,  which  soon  leaked  out,  was  that  of 
his  being  supposed  to  eat  game  fowl  eggs,  which  were  as 
forbidden  to  him  as  the  flesh  of  a  cow  to  a  Brahmin. 

I  received  from  Captain  Astley  the  following  interesting 
recollections  of  Cremorne's  Derby  : — 

'  My  cousin  John  Astley  had  an  unnamed  one  called 
Brother-to-Flurry,  or  the  Makeshift  Colt,  that  had  never  run 
in  public  up  to  the  Derby  of  1872.  He  was  trained  by  the 
astute  Alec  Taylor,  and  I  defy  contradiction  when  I  say 
that  nobody  knew,  or  ever  will  know,  how  good  he  was, 
except  George  Payne,  John  Astley  and  Alec  Taylor.  All  I 
know  is  that  he  ought  to  have  easily  beaten  Cremorne,  if  he 
had  but  properly  come  round  Tattenham  Corner.  The  first 
bet  laid  against  him  was  1000  to  8  at  old  Tattersall's  ;  and 
then  the  commission  was  executed  with  uncommon  secrecy 
and  very  gradually. 

*  On  the  morning  of  the  race,  somehow  or  other,  the  Sports- 
man got  an  idea  about  his  form  and  advised  its  readers  to 
back  him  for  a  place.     His  starting  price  of  40  to  I  would 
have  been  much  longer  only  for  the  Sportsman.     What  ex- 
citement there  was  on  arrival  at  Epsom  !     I  hid  away  in  the 
Durdans   to  avoid   being   badgered.      At  length  I  emerged 
from  my  retreat,  and  rushing  at  dear  old  George  Payne  and 
my  cousin  John,  told  them  how  anxious  I  was  that  Brother- 
to-Flurry  would  win.     John  Astley  remarked,  "  Nothing  but 
Cremorne  can  possibly  beat  him,  and  I  have  backed  him  for 
£1500  for  a  place." 

*  Coming  round  Tattenham  Corner,  up  went  Brother-to- 
Flurry's  head,  whereas  Cremorne  swept  beautifully  round  it. 

O 


2  io  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

The  unnamed  one  consequently  lost  a  lot  of  ground,  and  was 
fully  fifty  yards  behind  Cremorne  when  he  began  to  make  up 
the  lost  distance  in  a  way  which  baffles  description.  Just  at 
the  last  he  was  "  there  "  but  not  quite  "  all  there."  Cremorne 
beat  him  by  a  short  head,  and  a  stride  past  the  winning-post 
he  was  in  front  of  Cremorne.  "  What  difference  does  that 
make  to  you  ?  "  said  someone  to  George  Payne.  "  A  hun- 
dred thousand,  my  boy,"  coolly  remarked  dear  old  George  as 
serene  as  the  moon. 

*  Brother-to-Flurry,  who  was  afterwards  named  Pell  Mell, 
was  fat  when  he  ran  at  Ascot,  so  did  not  win,  though  they 
laid  odds  on  him.  Cousin  John  would  not  run  him  in  the 
Cesarewitch,  being  afraid  that  some  lightly-weighted  thing 
would  beat  him  and  so  spoil  his  reputation. 

'  My  cousin  has  owned  several  good  horses,  notably 
Arbury,  given  him  by  Newdegate,  and  called  after  his  place. 
Arbury  ran  second  for  the  Grand  National.  Cousin  John 
then  turned  him  into  a  hunter,  and  didn't  he  show  them  the 
way  across  Leicestershire  ! ' 


Photo,  by  H.  R.  Sherborn,  Newmarket. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Dan  Kingsland — Argentine  Horses — Sample's  Second  Show  in  London — 
Another  Frost — Colonel  Pole  Carew — Taming  Horses  by  Machinery — 
The  Love  of  Englishmen  for  Horses — Lecturing  at  the  Polytechnic — 
Mr  Frank  Haes  —  The  Veterinary  Fellowship  Degree  —  Bound  for 
South  Africa — Mr  Edwin  Ashe — Mr  W.  W.  Reade's  Cricket  Team — 
Miss  Genevieve  Ward  and  Mr  Vernon. 

WE  returned  to  England  in  1891,  and  I  set  to  work 
to  bring  out  new  editions  of  some  books  of  mine 
which  were  out  of  print.  Among  other  men  I  met  was  Dan 
Kingsland,  who  had  brought  over  a  shipment  of  horses  from 
the  Argentine  Republic  to  sell  in  London.  He  was  formerly  a 
driver  of  a  coach  in  Victoria  and  seemed  glad  to  meet  me  and 
have  a  talk  about  his  old  Australian  friends,  Teddy  Weekes, 
Macklin  and  other  Colonial  dealers  whom  I  had  known  in 
India.  He  had  been  at  Buenos  Ayres  for  about  three  years, 


2  1 2  Among  Men  anal  Horses. 

and  was  working  for  the  rich  firm  of  Caseres.  I  went  two 
or  three  times  to  Palmer's  Green  where  he  was  staying,  and 
took  a  careful  survey  of  his  horses.  They  were  for  the  most 
part,  fairly  strong,  under-bred  animals,  averaging  about  14.3 
high.  They  had  good  bone  and  sufficient  substance  ;  but 
had  plain  heads  and  a  tendency  to  be  goose-rumped. 
Although  they  were  well  suited  to  light  cart  work,  they 
did  not  fetch  at  auction  more  than  about  £14  apiece  ;  for 
they  were  almost  all  unbroken  and  could  not  be  handled  by 
the  ordinary  run  of  men  with  safety.  People  in  England 
have  a  horror — and  small  blame  to  them — of  wild  brutes  that 
try  to  knock  the  brains  out  of  anyone  rash  enough  to  come 
within  reach  of  their  hind  or  fore  feet  ;  and  will,  conse- 
quently, give  but  very  small  prices  for  horses  fresh  off  the 
scrub,  pampas,  or  veldt.  In  England,  above  all  places,  manners 
make  the  horse.  The  South  American  half  breeds  whom 
Kingsland  brought  over  to  look  after  the  horses,  did  not 
seem  a  very  capable  lot.  Had  he  had  rough  riders  like  my 
Australian  friends,  Doolan,  Steve  Margarett,  Alfred  Praetz, 
or  M'Cracken,  they  would  have  put  the  animals  straight  in  a 
very  short  time.  In  such  a  case,  the  employment  of  quick 
methods  of  breaking  means  the  saving  of  time  and  money. 
For  instance,  I  would  engage,  with  the  help  of  two  good 
assistants,  to  make  in  a  fortnight  (I  might  almost  say  in  a 
week),  a  hundred  such  horses,  quiet  to  handle  and  capable  of 
being  ridden  about  by  a  lady.  They  are  the  type  of  the  use- 
ful, medium-sized  horse  which  would  suit  the  Indian  cavalry, 
and  other  purposes  in  which  '  plainness '  might  be  com- 
pensated for  cheapness.  The  question  of  their  importation  to 
India  is  entirely  one  of  freight,  which  I  believe  would  be 
higher  between  Buenos  Ayres  and  Calcutta,  than  between 
Melbourne  and  Calcutta. 

I  may  anticipate  events  a  little  by  saying  that  since 
that  time  Kingsland,  in  later  shipments,  has  brought  over 
horses  of  much  improved  class,  and  has  consequently 
obtained  a  proportionately  enhanced  average.  The  last  I 


Colonel  Pole  Carew.  2 1 3 

saw  fetched  £23  a  piece  for  tramway  work,  at  which  they 
have  given  great  satisfaction.  While  I  am  writing  there  are 
a  couple  of  thoroughbred  South  American  fillies  imported  by 
him  in  my  paddock.  They  are  good-looking,  smart  animals 
with  first-rate  shoulders,  and  were  sent  to  me  to  break  and 
train  by  Mr  F.  Pritchard.  They  give  so  much  *  promise ' 
that  there  is  every  probability  of  the  experiment  being  re- 
peated on  a  large  scale  in  the  near  future. 

We  were  not  long  in  London  before  we  met  our  old  friend, 
Sample,  who  had  perfected  and  patented  in  all  countries  his 
invention  for  taming  horses  by  machinery,  and  was  then 
showing  it  at  Hengler's  Circus,  with  Mr  Blundell  Williams, 
who  was  financing  the  speculation,  as  manager.  The  show, 
as  might  have  been  expected,  was  even  a  worse  *  frost '  than 
that  of  1885  ;  for  it  was  all  machine  and  no  amusement.  I 
remember  once  meeting  in  town  Colonel  Pole  Carew,  who 
was  military  secretary  to  Lord  Roberts  and  who  had  attended 
one  of  my  classes  abroad,  '  Come  to  teach  the  Cockneys  how  to 
break-in  their  horses  ?  '  asked  the  cheery  guardsman.  '  No,' 
I  replied,  *  I  have  come  to  England  only  to  bring  out  books.' 
*  You  are  quite  right,'  he  said,  '  Londoners  do  not  want  to 
learn  anything ;  they  only  wish  to  be  amused.'  I  felt  the 
truth  of  Colonel  Carew's  remarks,  as  I  sat  in  the  almost 
empty  circus  and  watched  Sample's  dreary  performance  ;  and 
thought  how  different  it  would  be,  if  he  had  in  the  ring  a  wild 
South  American  broncho  or  two,  which  he  might  have  easily 
procured,  and  a  brave  man  to  be  bucked  ofT.  He  could  then 
reduce  the  '  terror '  to  obedience,  teach  him  to  jump,  put  up  a 
young  lady  who  would  ride  the  animal  about  the  place,  hop 
him  over  some  hurdles,  and  '  draw '  all  London.  That  was 
the  programme  my  wife  and  I  would  have  adopted  had  we 
been  in  Sample's  place.  Had  he  not  been  infatuated  with 
this  infernal  machine,  he  might  have  extracted  a  few  jokes 
out  of  it ;  but  he  would  treat  it  seriously,  at  a  time  when  his 
audience  were  pining  to  be  made  laugh.  The  show  soon 
came  to  an  end,  and  he  and  his  machine  were  left  stranded. 


2  14  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

He  was  very  an-xious  to  go  abroad  on  tour  with  us,  but  he 
and  my  wife  could  not  agree  ;  for  they  held  totally  different 
views  on  the  manner  in  which  a  show  ought  to  be  run,  and 
they  would  say  what  they  thought,  especially,  when  they  had 
waxed  warm  in  argument.  As  defeat  had  not  altered  the 
opinion  of  Sample  as  to  the  correctness  of  his  own  ideas,  I 
felt  that  if  I  took  him  with  me  he  might  jib  at  any  suggestion 
that  did  not  tally  with  his  *  system.'  Besides,  as  sailors  say, 
standing  rigging  makes  bad  running  gear.  I  grant  that  I  am 
quite  as  pig-headed  as  Sample  or  anyone  else  ;  but,  as  I  had 
the  money  to  pay  the  piper,  I  thought  that  I  had  the  right  to 
call  the  tune.  Giving  up  the  idea  of  taking  Sample  with  me, 
I  proposed  to  hire  his  machine  ;  but  he  would  hear  of  nothing 
except  selling  a  '  territory,'  as  he  called  and  pronounced  the 
right  to  use  the  invention  in  any  particular  district.  As  I 
was  not  taking  any  '  territories  '  just  then,  I  relinquished  the 
thought  of  utilising  the  machine  for  my  own  benefit,  as  well 
as  for  that  of  its  patentee. 

That  machine  had  cost  Sample  five  years'  work  and  about 
£3000  in  hard  cash  ;  for  while  the  idea  was  growing  in  his 
mind  he  neglected  all  other  business  in  the  endeavour  to  give 
it  material  form.  With  the  mechanical  skill  which  comes 
naturally  to  an  American,  he  had  devised  it  in  a  very  in- 
genious manner.  It  consisted  of  a  platform  which  could  be 
rotated  by  steam  or  hand,  and  which  supported  a  '  crush,'  or 
kind  of  horse  box,  in  which  the  patient  was  to  be  placed, 
secured,  and  then  spun  round,  at  any  required  velocity  until 
all  the  '  starch '  and  '  stuffing '  had  been  extracted  out  of  him. 
He  was  then  taken  out  and  used  for  exhibition  purposes. 
With  inexplicable  fatuity,  the  mistake  of  the  first  show  was 
repeated.  No  sufficient  proof  was  given  that  the  animals  to 
be  experimented  upon,  had  any  '  devil '  in  them,  and  when 
they  were  released,  the  audience  was  supposed  to  take  for 
granted  that  their  manifest  tameness  was  entirely  due  to  the 
efficacy  of  the  machine.  My  experience  with  horses  con- 
vinced me  that,  from  a  practical  point  of  view,  Sample's 


Englishmen  s  Love  of  Horses.  215 

machine  admirably  fulfilled  the  intentions  of  its  inventor ;  but 
its  working  was  neither  amusing  nor  exciting,  and  conse- 
quently it  was  useless  for  show  purposes.  As  one  might 
think  at  first  glance,  there  would  have  been  no  real  difficulty 
in  getting  into  it  any  wild  or  violent  horse  that  had  been  pro- 
vided with  a  strong  head  stall  and  rope  with  which  to  hold 
him.  By  its  aid  and  that  of  three  or  four  assistants,  one 
could  have  tamed  (not  broken  in)  three  or  four  wild  bronchos 
or  '  scrubbers '  an  hour,  and  with  but  little  danger  and 
exertion.  I  was  not  alone  in  the  favourable  opinion  I  held 
about  this  machine  ;  for  Dr  Fleming,  late  Principal  Veterin- 
ary Surgeon  of  the  Army  and  ex-President  of  the  R.C.V.S., 
to  whom  I  showed  it  and  explained  its  merits,  considered  it 
such  a  useful  adjunct  to  the  ordinary  means  of  breaking-in 
horses,  that  he  gave  Sample  a  flattering  testimonial  in  its 
favour. 

Horse  training,  unless  there  is  a  good  supply  of  genuinely 
wild  animals,  or  unless  the  performance  is  strongly  suppli- 
mented  by  riding  and  jumping,  makes,as  I  have  already  pointed 
out,  a  terribly  '  thin '  show  for  an  ordinary  English  audience, 
which  from  lack  of  practical  experience  with  horses,  is  incap- 
able of  understanding  many  of  the  good  or  bad  points  of  what 
is  being  done.  It  is  ridiculous  to  imagine  that  people  can 
take  any  real  interest  in  a  subject  which  they  have  never 
studied,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  which  they  have  experienced 
no  want.  The  idea  that  all  Englishmen  are  devoted  to  horses, 
is,  doubtless,  the  relic  of  a  tradition  handed  down  from  a  time 
when  their  ancestors  lived  a  more  or  less  country  life.  No 
doubt,  the  effect  of  such  a  wholesome  tradition  is  to  stimulate 
sporting  feeling,  and,  if  opportunity  offers,  to  convert  a  mere 
sentiment  into  a  healthy  reality.  But  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases,  the  ordinary  Englishman's  love  for  horses  is  mere  love 
for  gambling.  If  this  were  not  so,  we  would  find  that  horse 
shows  would  be  far  better  attended  than  race  meetings ;  for, 
as  a  rule,  the  numbers  and  varieties  of  horses  are  far  greater 
at  the  former  than  at  the  latter.  Also,  the  peculiarities  of 


2 1 6  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

conformation  and  action  of  the  animals  at  a  race  meeting 
would  be  more  carefully  studied  than  the  state  of  the  odds. 
We  all  know  that  racing  cannot  be  carried  on  without  bet- 
ting ;  for  if  that  were  stopped,  the  British  public  would  with- 
draw their  patronage,  and  there  would  be  no  '  gate '  from 
which  to  give  the  added  money.  '  What  I  likes  about  rac- 
ing/ said  a  young  so-called  sporting  publican,  who  was  a 
devoted  student  of  the  turf  from  a  '  tape '  and  '  price  list ' 
point  of  view,  '  is  to  see  my  two  "  quid "  coming  into  the 
straight,  a  dozen  lengths  in  front  of  everything,  and  all  the 
rest  pulling  up.'  I  may  point  out  that  other  sports  connected 
with  horses,  such  as  hunting,  polo,  pigsticking,  and  Indian 
paper- chasing  are  carried  on  without  either  betting  or  money 
prizes  ;  but  the  interest  taken  in  them  is  confined  to  horse 
owners,  or,  at  least,  to  persons  who  have  some  practical  con- 
nection with  horses.  Journalists  know  the  tastes  of  those 
for  whom  they  write  ;  so,  if  we  desire  to  learn  what  sort  of 
horse  talk  is  most  pleasing  to  the  average  Englishman,  we 
need  only  peruse  the  reports  of  race  meetings  in  our  daily 
and  weekly  papers.  In  them  we  find  the  gambling  aspect  of 
the  case  analysed  with  the  most  minute  care,  but  not  a  word 
is  said  about  the  horses  themselves,  beyond  general  expres- 
sions of  praise  or  disapproval.  The  very  selection  of  the 
reporters  is  enough  to  point  out  that  exact  knowledge  of 
horse  flesh  is  not  expected  from  them.  Then  again,  let  us 
take  the  few  of  the  average  Englishmen  who  have  enough 
money  to  keep  horses  ;  do  they,  I  may  ask,  as  a  rule,  buy 
horses  to  break-in,  ride,  school,  hunt,  and  make  companions 
of?  Not  once  in  a  thousand  times.  If  they  do  spend  their 
money  on  horses,  they,  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases,  keep  them 
for  show,  hand  them  over  to  the  care  of  their  grooms,  coach- 
men, or  trainers,  and  then  pose  as  lovers  (?)  of  horses.  I  have 
seen  a  great  deal  of  true  love  for  horses  among  impecunious 
subalterns  abroad,  who  often  had  to  practise  rigid  economy 
on  their  mess  bills  and  other  expenses  in  order  to  keep 
their  ponies,  which  they  looked  after  like  a  hen  would  her 


Polytechnic  Institute.  2  \  7 

chickens  ;  but  not  among  non-riders.  On  the  other  hand,  if 
we  inspect  the  very  small  minority  of  Englishmen  who  prac- 
tically interest  themselves  in  horses,  we  shall  find  men  of 
marvellous  enthusiasm  for  and  devotion  to  the  subject  in 
which  their  lives  are  wrapped  up.  No  detail  connected  with 
horses  is  too  trivial  for  them ;  and  no  information  too  dry. 
But  we  don't  meet  them  every  day,  or  in  every  crowd. 

About  this  time  I  went  up  for  the  veterinary  fellowship 
examination,  and  obtained  the  right  to  put  F.R.C.V.S.  after 
my  name.  Members  of  the  Royal  College  of  Veterinary  Sur- 
geons are  eligible  for  this  examination  after  they  have  been 
in  practice  for  at  least  five  years. 

In  the  autumn  of  this  year  I  gave,  in  the  Regent  Street 
Polytechnic  Institute,  a  lecture  on  Animal  Photography, 
which  I  illustrated,  principally,  by  magic  lantern  slides  of 
the  photographs  which  have  since  appeared  in  The  Points 
of  the  Horse ;  and  had  a  large  and  interested  audience. 
When  I  had  done  my  talk  and  was  about  to  depart,  a  gen- 
tleman came  up  to  me,  and  introduced  himself  as  a  photo- 
grapher who  had  devoted  a  great  deal  of  his  time  to  the 
portraiture  of  horses.  He  said  a  lot  of  flattering  things  about 
my  work,  and,  as  I  had  mentioned  that  I  was  going  to  bring 
out  a  book  on  equine  conformation,  he,  in  the  kindest  pos- 
sible manner,  offered  to  give  me  the  use  of  any  or  all  of  his 
extensive  collection.  Since  that  evening,  Mr  Frank  Haes,  for 
that  is  his  name,  and  I  have  been  fast  friends.  I  found  that 
he  had  preceded  me  in  the  adoption  of  the  idea,  that,  for  the 
sake  of  comparison,  animals  should  be  *  taken '  in  strict  pro- 
file ;  although  I  believe  I  was  the  first  to  insist  that,  as  a  rule, 
a  horse  looks  best  in  a  photograph  when  he  is  more  or  less 
placed  against  the  sky.  Mr  Haes  was  certainly  the  pioneer 
of  animal  photography  and  the  fine  work  which  he  did  in  that 
line,  during  the  old  wet-plate  days,  testifies  to  his  great  tech- 
nical skill,  and  true  artistic  feeling.  I  got  from  him,  among 
other  subjects,  photographs  of  Diophantus,  winner  of  the 
Two  Thousand  Guineas  in  1861  ;  of  Caractacus,  winner  of  the 


2 1 8  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

Derby  of  1862  ;  of  Hannah,  the  heroine  of  the  Oaks  and  St 
Leger  in  1871  ;  of  Favonius,  who  won  the  Derby  in  1871  ;  of 
Cremorne,  the  winner  of  the  Derby  in  the  following  year  ;  and 
of  a  specimen  of  the  now  extinct  quagga.  I  need  hardly  point 
to  the  immense  value  of  such  historical  portraits.  Mr  Frank 
Haes  is  a  prominent  figure  in  the  photographic  world,  by 
whom  he  is  greatly  respected  and  liked.  The  two  Mr  Dixons 
(father  and  son),  Mr  Clarence  Hailey,  Major  J.  Fortune  Nott, 
Mr  Sherborn,  and  Mr  Gambier  Bolton  have  done  much  to 
encourage  the  public  taste  for  the  photography  of  animals.  Mr 
Medland  has  been  very  happy  in  his  instantaneous  work  in  the 
same  direction.  In  Germany,  the  name  of  Anschiitz  is  best 
known  ;  in  France,  that  of  Delton. 

As  the  winter  was  coming  on  apace,  and  as  neither  of  us 
cared  to  become  laid  up  with  influenza  or  any  of  the  other 
seasonable  complaints,  we  completed  our  arrangements  for 
our  long  talked-of  trip  to  South  Africa,  took  our  passage  in 
the  good  ship  Dunottar  Castle,  and  left  Southampton  towards 
the  end  of  November  1891,  bound  for  Cape  Town.  As  an 
old  traveller  by  the  P.  and  O.,  French  Mail,  and  many  other 
lines,  I  must  say  that  the  accommodation  and  food  on  this 
Castle  steamer  left  nothing  to  be  desired.  We  had  a 
pleasant  lot  of  passengers,  including  the  Ward-Vernon 
theatrical  troupe,  and  an  English  cricket  team,  '  run '  by  Mr 
Edwin  Ashe  of  Richmond  and  Mr  W.  W.  Read,  the  well- 
known  Surrey  amateur.  The  team  consisted  of  Messrs 
Reid,  Murdoch,  Ferris,  and  Brann,  and  the  professionals,  Alec 
Hearne,  G.  G.  Hearne,  J.  Hearne,  Chatterton,  Brockweli, 
Harry  Wood,  Martin,  Pougher,  Ayres,  and  Leeney.  As  this 
tour  was  managed  on  purely  commercial  lines,  and  as  all  the 
members  of  the  team  came  out  first  class,  it  was  understood 
that  Jack  was  as  good  as  his  master.  Read,  Murdoch,  and 
Ferris  naturally  tried  to  draw,  between  promateurs  and  pros., 
that  imaginary  line  of  social  demarcation  which  is  recognised 
only  in  the  cricket  world.  Relations  would  have  been  over- 
strained on  several  occasions,  had  not  Mr  Ashe,  with  the  con- 


Miss  Genevieve  Ward.  219 

summate  tact  of  which  he  is  a  master,  been  present  to  restore 
harmony.  He  was  the  real,  though  vicarious,  leader  of  the 
party,  the  members  of  which  were  so  influenced  by  his  un- 
selfish kindness  and  winning  manners  that  they  treated 
his  suggestions  as  orders.  He  was  led  into  this  speculation  in 
a  round-about  manner.  Being  well  and  favourably  known  at 
the  Cape  as  he  is  in  England,  he,  out  of  pure  good  nature 
and  with  the  desire  to  promote  sport,  allowed  his  name  to  be 
used  in  arranging  the  terms  of  the  trip  with  the  South  African 
cricket  authorities.  Within  a  few  days  of  the  time  appointed 
for  starting,  the  gentleman  who  was  to  have  financed  the 
team  failed  to  produce  the  passage  money,  so  Mr  Ashe,  feel- 
ing that  he  had  unwittingly  bound  himself  to  the  engagements 
made,  joined  in  with  Mr  Read.  Though  the  team  won  all 
its  matches  in  South  Africa,  it  was  not,  as  might  have  been 
expected,  a  success.  The  Ward-Vernon  troupe  were,  on  the 
whole,  a  capable  lot.  Miss  Genevieve  Ward  is  a  Jewess  of 
romantic  history.  She  has  a  grand  style  and  has  a  rich,  deep 
musical  voice  to  aid  it.  Years  ago  she  made  a  great  sensa- 
tion in  London  by  her  playing  in  Forget-me-not.  Old  play- 
goers consider  that  since  the  days  of  Mrs  Siddons  no  actress 
has  played  the  part  of  Queen  Catherine,  the  hapless  wife  of 
Henry  VIII.,  so  powerfully  as  Miss  Ward  has  done.  Her 
last  success  was  at  the  Lyceum  as  Queen  Eleanor  in  Tenny- 
son's Becket  She  reminds  me  a  good  deal  of  that  great 
tragic  actress,  the  late  Miss  Glynn.  Mr  Vernon  and  his 
fellow  player  and  passenger,  Mr  Gofton,  are  clever,  and  have 
no  *  side.' 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

Horsebreaking  in  Cape  Town — Englishmen  in  South  Africa — Social  Equality 
— No  Style — Sir  Henry  Loch — Port  Elizabeth — A  Stranded  White  Man 
— A  Cockney  and  a  Mule — A  Real  Showman — '  Outside  of  the  Ring, 
please' — Killing  Horses — Rockwell — Driving  Tandem  without  Reins  or 
Traces  —  A  Cafe  au  lait  funker  —  October,  the  Basuto  Kafir  —  Mr 
Hilton  Barber — South  African  Farmers — Cauliflowers  Three  Shillings 
a  Piece — South  African  Horses — Horse  Sickness — Defeated  by  a  Mare — 
Bloemfontein  —  Orange  Free  State  Boers — Colesberg — Candlemas  and 
Belladrum — Roaring. 


S 


LEEPY,  old,  semi-Dutch  Cape  Town  looked  a  terribly 
unpromising  place  in  which  to  start  a  horse  show.  Like 
at  Singapore,  all  the  residents  (to  use  an  Irishism)  lived  out 
of  it.  During  the  day,  they  worked  in  their  offices,  like  bees 
in  their  hives  ;  but  by  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  they  had 
flitted  to  their  homes  miles  away  in  the  picturesque  surround- 
ing country,  leaving  the  streets  empty  of  carriage  and  rider. 
Their  horses  were  mostly  of  the  uncomplaining,  spiritless 
slave  sort.  Very  few  of  the  owners  of  these  animals  rode, 

220 


Cape  Town.  221 

and  those  who  went  in  traps  preferred,  as  a  rule,  to  entrust 
the  reins  to  a  black  groom  than  to  steer  the  conveyance  them- 
selves. To  meet  them  at  the  City  Club,  they  were  a  charming 
set  of  fellows  :  hospitable,  *  good  company,'  and  always  ready 
for  a  game  of  pool  or  poker ;  but  horses  were  not  much  in 
their  line.  In  my  ignorance  I  imagined  Cape  Town  was  the 
capital  of  South  Africa,  and  thought  it  incumbent  on  me  to  give 
a  show  there,  so  as  to  advertise  myself  for  the  remaining  towns 
in  that  part  of  the  continent.  But  I  could  not  see  how  I  was 
to  make  a  start.  From  the  date  of  our  arrival  in  the  beginning 
of  December,  up  to  Christmas,  the  attention  of  the  inhabit- 
ants was  centered  by  day  on  the  doings  of  the  cricketers,  and 
by  night,  on  the  performances  of  the  actors.  We  sat  '  tight ' 
and  'suffered,'  as  the  jockeys  say.  When  Yuletide  arrived, 
every  man  and  boy  gave  themselves  wholly  up  to  its  celebra- 
tion, which  they  merged  into  that  of  the  New  Year  ;  and  then 
took  a  fortnight's  holiday  for  the  effects  of  the  liquor  to  die 
out.  By  the  end  of  that  time,  our  purse  was  so  light  that 
we  could  brook  no  more  delay.  By  the  kind  assistance  of 
H.E.  Sir  Henry  Loch,  The  Cape  Times ,  Cape  Argus,  Colonel 
O'Callaghan  of  the  Gunners,  Major  Garnet  of  the  York  and 
Lancaster  Regiment,  and  other  horse  enthusiasts,  we  got  up 
a  class  at  the  Fort  and  at  Wynberg  camp.  As  all  the  gentle- 
men who  attended  came  with  the  idea  that  they  were  going 
to  learn  a  lot  about  horses,  they  went  away  thoroughly  satis- 
fied ;  and  I  feel  certain  that  we  left  a  good  impression  behind. 
On  one  occasion,  to  enliven  the  proceedings  for  Sir  Henry 
Loch  and  his  party  from  Government  House,  I  let  my  wife 
get  on  a  buck -jumping  pony  that  had  disposed  of  all  the  young 
men  of  the  place  who  had  been  rash  enough  to  mount  him. 
Though  the  little  fellow  did  his  best,  he  could  not  stir  her 
in  the  saddle.  This  good  performance  was  very  warmly 
applauded.  I  may  remark  that  if  a  lady  will  ride  in  the  way 
we  teach,  her  seat  will  be  far  stronger  than  that  of  any  man 
in  a  hunting  saddle,  and  quite  as  firm  as  that  of  a  practised 
rider  in  a  buck-jumping  saddle. 


222  A  mong  Men  and  Horses. 

1  British  workmen  '  or  their  descendants  form  the  large 
majority  of  the  English  residents  in  South  Africa.  In  their 
struggle  after  wealth,  they  do  not  appear  to  have  had  the  in- 
clination or  opportunity  to  advance  in  education  or  culture  be- 
yond the  standard  of  their  ancestors.  Their  reading  is  chiefly 
confined  to  periodical  literature  and  novels.  Fluctuations  of 
wealth  have  been  so  common  among  this  essentially  gambling 
community,  that  the  possession  or  want  of  money  makes  but 
little  difference  as  regards  social  distinction.  The  well-born 
and  well-educated  are  so  few  in  number  that  they  either  form 
a  *  negligable '  quantity  by  remaining  apart,  or  become  merged 
in  the  crowd.  In  England,  men  are  '  gentlemen '  by  birth, 
education,  or  money.  In  South  Africa,  the  only  'guinea 
stamp '  is  the  fact  of  being  a  white  man.  Consequently  every 
English  colonist  regards  himself  as  the  social  equal  of  every- 
one else,  and  is  no  more  puffed  up  by  that  idea  than  he  would 
be  by  the  thought  of  there  being  practically  no  difference 
between  his  flesh,  blood  and  bones,  and  those  of  any  of  his 
neighbours.  If  he  happens  to  earn  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of 
his  face,  he  will  make  no  blatant  claim,  as  a  working  man,  to 
superiority  over  those  who  have  been  born  with  the  proverbial 
silver  spoon  in  their  mouths  ;  for  he  considers  that  he  is  their 
equal  ;  and  they  his  equal.  He  will  be  a  kind  and  helpful 
friend  to  you,  so  long  as  you  treat  him  as  he  treats  you ;  but 
no  patronising  airs  please,  or  there  will  be  a  coolness,  if  not  a 
fight.  If  you  ask  him  to  have  a  drink,  he  will  consent  with 
pleasure  ;  and,  when  the  fluid  has  disappeared,  he  will  return 
the  compliment.  If  you  do  not  want  to  drink  any  more, 
have  a  cigar  instead  of  the  whisky  or  beer,  or  say  that  you 
will  only  be  too  glad  to  let  him  '  shout '  next  time  you  and  he 
meet ;  but,  unless  you  want  to  insult  him,  don't  play  the  role 
of  the  superior  person  by  expressing  your  wish  to  pay  for 
him.  I  need  hardly  say  that  the  average  workman  in  Eng- 
land would  take  many  such  insults  without  getting  angry. 
Not  so  the  South  African  son  of  toil,  whose  independence  of 
mind  is  above  all  praise.  As  regards  education  and  the 


Sir  Henry  Loch.  223 

observances  which  are  current  in  what  is  called  *  good  society/ 
he  is  certainly  not  worse,  even  if  he  is  but  little  better  than 
the  members  of  his  class  in  England. 

In  Australia,  where  there  is  practically  no  admixture  of 
black  and  white  blood,  the  rising  generation  are  proud  to  call 
themselves  Colonials  or  Australians,  and  would  resent  being 
termed  Englishmen.  In  South  Africa,  where  miscegenation 
is  not  unknown,  the  English-speaking  inhabitants  will  brook 
no  other  name  but  that  of  Englishmen.  To  style  them 
Colonists  would  be  an  indignity ;  to  allude  to  them  as 
Africanders,  an  insult. 

Sir  Henry  Loch,  who  is  a  man  of  tact,  as  well  as  an  aris- 
tocrat and  a  soldier,  keeps  his  people  in  good  humour  by 
playing  to  their  social  equality  ideas.  He  invites  all  the 
shopkeepers  in  the  place  to  his  garden  parties  ;  and  they,  in 
their  turn,  allow  him  the  honour  of  being  governor  over  them 
without  having  the  slightest  power  in  their  government.  This 
amiable  fooling  serves  to  keep  both  sides  in  good  humour. 
We  brought  letters  of  introduction  to  Sir  Henry  from  our 
good  friends,  General  and  Mrs  Monty  Turnbull.  Both  he 
and  General  Turnbull  had  fought  side  by  side  in  the  old  Sikh 
war  of  1847-9. 

From  Cape  Town  we  went  to  Port  Elizabeth,  which  is 
a  thriving  commercial  city.  The  newspapers  had  prepared 
our  way  so  effectively  that  all  I  had  to  do  was  to  give  a 
lecture  in  the  town  hall.  The  mayor,  Mr  Macllwaith,  kindly 
took  the  chair,  while  I  explained  my  programme,  told 
yarns,  amused  my  audience,  and  got  up  a  big  class,  the 
members  of  which  being  all  riding  men,  like  those  of  Cape 
Town,  took  an  intelligent  interest  in  the  work,  which  was 
gratifying  to  me.  With  the  approval  of  keen  horsemen 
like  Mr  Wimble,  Mr  Miles,  Mr  Guthrie,  Dr  Edwards,  Mr 
Lyons  and  others,  I  felt  that  all  we  had  now  to  do  in  So.uth 
Africa  was  to  go  on  and  prosper.  We  had  a  pleasant  week's 
breaking  among  men  of  the  same  sort  at  Grahamstown, 
and  after  that  I  held,  by  invitation,  a  second  class  at  Port 


224  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

Elizabeth,  where  I  left  my  wife,  when  I  went  to  hold  a  class 
at  Craddock. 

My  assistant  up  to  that  time  had  been  a  young  Londoner 
of  the  clerk  class,  which  is  the  worst  of  all  for  getting  on 
in  foreign  countries.  He  wrote  a  much  better  hand  than 
I  did.  He  was  well-educated,  sober,  honest,  respectful  in 
his  manner,  punctual,  attentive  to  buisness ;  and  yet  for 
want  of  a  certain  amount  of  c  devil '  and  physical  energy, 
he  was  only  fit  to  be  put  behind  a  counter  or  at  a  desk, 
at  neither  of  which  kinds  of  work  are  there  any  vacancies 
in  the  Cape.  Dalston  (which  will  do  as  a  name  for  him 
as  well  as  any  other)  not  being  a  hard-handed,  resolute 
style  of  chap,  was  in  a  'stranded'  state  when  I  first  met 
him.  He  could  get  no  employment  at  Cape  Town,  and 
his  prospects  of  suitable  work  up  country,  even  if  he  had 
the  money  to  go  there,  were  even  worse.  I  could  not  help 
wondering  what  on  earth  had  ever  induced  him  and  hundreds 
like  him  to  come  to  South  Africa,  for  which  they  are  as 
suitable  as  a  one-legged  man  would  be  for  sprinting.  At 
the  time  I  engaged  Dalston,  I  was  patiently  waiting  at 
Cape  Town  for  the  completion  of  existing  functions  before 
starting  our  show,  and  hoped  that,  when  it  would  be  ready, 
my  coadjutor  would  have  learned  to  clean  leather  and  steel 
work,  and  to  know  the  names  of  the  various  portions  of 
my  saddle  and  bridle  gear.  This  he  did  with  alacrity,  and 
displayed  great  intelligence  in  the  manufacture  of  oxygen 
gas  for  our  magic  lantern.  He  understood  the  chemistry 
of  the  process  quite  as  well  as  I  did,  and  used  to  stop  up 
half  the  night  studying  that  portion  of  optics  which  refers 
to  lenses  and  condensers.  I  was  careful  to  explain  to 
Dalston  that  the  magic-lantern  lectures  I  gave  were  merely 
a  bit  of  by-play  to  the  serious  business  of  horsebreaking. 
I  trusted  that  he  would  not  become  discouraged  during 
the  period  of  our  enforced  idleness,  and  promised  to  make 
him  as  expert  as  I  was  in  the  art  of  giving  horses  good 
manners  and  snaffle  bridle  mouths.  I  advised  him  not  to 


A  Duffer.  225 

be  too  venturesome  with  the  horses  in  my  forthcoming 
classes,  and  told  him  that  when  they  'came  off/  I  would 
allow  him  only  to  hand  me  the  gear  which  I  required,  so 
that  he  might  have  every  advantage  in  observing  the  manner 
in  which  I  'went  about'  difficult  horses.  One  day  while 
holding  my  class  at  Port  Elizabeth,  I  explained  the  wrong 
and  the  right  way  of  lifting  up  a  horse's  hind  leg,  and  to 
give  Dalston  some  encouragement,  I  granted  him,  as  I 
considered,  the  great  favour  of  showing  the  assembled 
gentlemen  how  an  expert  would  'pick  up'  the  near  hind 
leg  of  a  vicious  mule  which  stood  in  the  centre  of  the  ring, 
as  a  subject  for  experiment.  Dalston  apparently  miscon- 
struing my  meaning,  acted  to  perfection  the  part  of  the 
typical  novice,  for  the  enlightenment  of  whose  ignorance 
I  had  come  to  South  Africa — so  I  had  declared  in  lecture 
and  on  hand-bill.  The  mule  did  not  enter  into  the  joke ; 
for  the  moment  he  put  his  hand  on  her  fetlock  (instead  of 
on  her  hamstring,  as  he  ought  to  have  done),  she  '  let  fly ' 
and  knocked  him  down  with  admirable  precision.  To  turn 
the  mishap  to  good  account,  I  ran  forward,  gathered  up 
Dalston  under  one  arm,  and  sawed  the  air  with  the  other, 
while  I  explained  that  although  I  had  always  advised  my 
assistant  to  observe  the  principle  of  point  de  zele,  his  youthful 
enthusiasm  had  outrun  his  prudence  and  that,  wishing  to 
demonstrate  the  wrong  method  of  lifting  up  a  mule's  hind  leg, 
he  had  played  his  part  in  too  realistic  a  manner.  I  lifted  him 
on  his  feet,  whispered  an  encouraging  word  or  two,  looked 
imploringly  at  him  to  see  if  I  dared  tell  the  gentlemen 
present  that  he  would  now  show  them  the  right  way  of 
picking  up  the  mule's  hind  leg  ;  but  as  I  saw  the  poor  fellow 
was  in  a  state  of  abject  fear,  I  did  the  job  myself,  and 
passed  off  the  mishap  as  best  I  could.  When  the  class  was 
over  for  that  day  and  while  we  were  returning  to  our  hotel, 
I  explained  to  Dalston  what  a  chance  he  had  missed  in 
not  turning  the  accident  to  good  account  as  any  true  show- 
man would  have  done.  He  replied  that  he  was  not  a  show- 


226  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

man.  I  pointed  out  that  according  to  the  text  beloved  of 
John  Hubert  Moore,  that  they  who  take  by  the  sword,  shall 
perish  by  the  sword.  Dalston  answered  very  meekly  that  he 
did  not  feel  at  all  inclined  to  die,  and  that  he  would  be 
very  grateful  if  I  would  help  him  to  go  to  Durban  where 
he  knew  a  publican  who  would  give  him  a  job  in  his  bar. 
I  paid  his  passage,  and  as  I  said  good-bye  to  him  on  board 
the  steamer,  I  was  delighted  to  see  that  the  'hunted'- look 
which  had  of  late  become  habitual  to  his  face,  was  replaced 
by  a  happy,  thankful  expression  of  deliverance.  We  met 
again  at  the  close  of  my  tour  at  Natal.  He  was  behind 
a  bar  and  doing  well.  'Dalston,'  I  said,  'you  ought  to 
take  up  my  game  and  run  a  show  in  a  lot  of  places  I 
have  left  out.  You  would  make  heaps  of  money ;  as  you 
know  all  the  business.'  '  Serving  drink  at  a  bar  is  good 
enough  for  me,'  he  replied.  '  I  would  not  go  near  a  horse 
if  you  gave  me  a  ;£iooo.'  I  laughed  at  this,  as  it  re- 
minded me  of  the  mule  ;  and  to  show  I  was  friendly  with 
him,  I  gave  him  a  ticket  for  our  show,  and  hoped  he  would 
come.  He  promised  he  would  do  so  ;  but  he  was  probably 
afraid  that  he  might  tumble  up  against  another  mule  ;  for 
he  gave  his  ticket  to  someone  else  and  stayed  away. 

To  illustrate  the  way  in  which  a  real  showman  would 
endeavour  to  turn  disaster  into  profit,  I  may  recount  the  two 
following  incidents  which  befell  Sample.  On  one  occasion, 
the  great  American  tamer,  while  holding  a  class,  got  into 
a  light  trap  to  which  a  horse  that  he  had  put  through  his 
system  was  harnessed.  It  seems  that  all  the  '  stuffing '  had 
not  been  taken  out  of  the  animal  ;  for,  as  it  was  being  driven 
round  the  ring,  it  kicked,  plunged,  and  finally  upset  the 
cart  on  top  of  Sample.  Horror-stricken,  the  members  of  the 
class  rushed  into  the  ring  to  extricate  their  teacher  from  his 
perilous  position.  '  Keep  outside  of  the  ring,  gentlemen, 
please  ! '  called  out  Sample  from  under  the  cart,  '  I  am  just 
showing  you  how  not  to  do  it.'  He  then  hailed  Joe,  who  pulled 
him  out  of  harm's  way.  Sample  adjusted  his  gear,  gave  the 


A  Good  Showman.  227 

horse  another  dose  of  the  '  system',  and  drove  it  round  in  his 
usual  fine  style  to  the  immense  delight  and  admiration  of  his 
audience. 

Another  time,  when  holding  a  class  in  America,  the 
animal  with  which  Sample  was  doing  the  head  and  tail  trick, 
fell  down  the  wrong  way  by  accident,  and  broke  its  neck. 
Thereupon,  he  called  out  to  the  irate  owner :  '  How  much 
did  you  value  that  horse  at  ?  '  Forty  dollars  '  was  the  reply. 
'  Here's  the  money,'  said  the  showman,  handing  him  that 
amount.  *  Now  gentlemen,'  continued  Sample,  '  if  you  have 
got  any  more  vicious  horses  to  be  killed,  bring  them  along 
and  I'll  settle  them  up.'  His  open-handed  action  of  paying 
and  looking  pleasant,  made  him  a  host  of  friends,  and  quickly 
brought  back  the  forty  dollars  with  liberal  interest. 

To  be  a  good  showman,  a  man  requires  not  alone  to 
be  clever,  ingenious  and  resourceful ;  but  must  also  be  ready 
to  utilise  flukes  as  much  as  well-played  strokes.  Some  of  my 
readers  have  no  doubt  heard  of  Rockwell,  the  famous 
American  horse  tamer  and  trick  teacher.  This  great  expert 
had  broken  a  pair  of  horses  so  admirably  to  harness,  that  he 
was  able  to  drive  them  about  in  a  town,  and  make  them  walk, 
trot,  turn  corners,  and  pull  up,  without  reins  ;  their  entire 
guidance  being  accomplished  with  almost  imperceptible 
movements  of  the  whip.  To  bring  horses,  in  the  open  and  at 
liberty,  to  such  a  high  state  of  training  as  this,  required  an 
extraordinary  amount  of  skill,  patience  and  time  from  the 
teacher.  Marvellous  as  this  feat  was,  Sample  accomplished 
by  pure  accident  the  still  greater  one  of  driving  in  tandem  a 
leader  which  had  neither  reins  nor  traces.  While  touring 
through  Australia,  he  was  asked  to  break  into  harness  a  horse 
that  used  to  persistently  refuse  to  pull  between  the  shafts. 
Wishing  to  take  the  animal  with  him  to  the  place  at  which 
he  was  staying,  he  was  going  to  hitch  him  to  the  back  of  his 
trap,  when  the  horse  becoming  frightened  by  something  or 
the  other,  broke  loose,  and  successfully  resisted  all  efforts 
at  recapture.  Sample,  tired  of  the  pursuit,  and  wishing  to 


228  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

proceed  home,  got  into  the  cart  and  drove  off.  He  had  gone 
only  a  little  way,  when  to  his  surprise,  he  saw  the  loose  horse 
range  itself  in  front  of  the  harnessed  one,  and  act  as  if  it  was 
in  tandem.  It  quickened  its  pace,  '  slowed  down,'  turned  or 
pulled  up  in  exact  accordance  with  the  wheeler.  Sample 
kept  the  knowledge  of  this  incident  to  himself;  bought  the 
horse;  and,  by  its  means,  acquired  a  reputation  for  skill 
in  breaking  to  harness,  even  exceeding  that  of  Rockwell, 
who,  sad  to  relate,  went  down  with  his  entire  circus  and 
troupe  in  a  steamer  which  foundered  at  sea. 

In  place  of  Dalston,  I  took  with  me  to  Craddock  a  light- 
weight lad  who  had  been  riding  horses  at  exercise  for 
one  of  the  local  trainers.  He,  like  the  majority  of  other 
Africanders  or  '  Cape  boys/  was  a  sort  of  Anglo-Hottentot- 
Dutchman.  As  he  knew  the  country  and  could  speak 
English  and  Dutch,  I  hoped  he  would  be  useful.  While  I 
was  holding  my  first  class  at  Craddock,  I  broke  in  a  very 
bad  buckjumper,  and  having  fixed  him  up  with  a  saddle  on 
his  back  in  such  a  manner  that  he  could  not  buck,  I  told  my 
cafe  au  lait  friend  to  mount,  while  I  held  the  horse.  My 
nominal  assistant  begged  to  be  excused,  as  he  did  not  want 
to  have  his  neck  broken.  Not  wishing  to  argue  out  the 
subject  before  my  pupils,  I  turned  to  a  group  of  Kafir  boys 
who  were  standing  by  and  offered  los.  to  anyone  who  would 
get  on  the  horse.  Hardly  were  the  words  out  of  my 
mouth,  before  a  tall,  strapping  Basuto  with  a  pleasant,  ugly 
face,  which  reminded  me  of  that  of  a  favourite  bull  dog  I 
once  owned,  strode  up  to  me  and  said  with  a  cheery  smile 
and  a  light-hearted  toss  of  his  head,  '  Baas  !  I'll  ride  him.' 
Pocketing  the  half-sovereign  I  gave  him,  he  threw  his  long 
legs  across  the  animal  and  immensely  enjoyed  the  futile 
efforts  it  made  to  break  loose  from  my  grasp.  When,  after 
about  ten  minutes,  it  had  *  given  in,'  I  unfixed  it,  and  gave 
the  reins  to  October  (that  was  the  Basuto's  name),  who  rode 
the  animal  quietly  about  the  ring.  These  half-civilised 
Kafirs,  I  may  remark,  are  great  users  of  second-hand  clothing, 


October.  229 

and  especially  of  cast-off  uniforms ;  for  they  dearly  love  a 
bit  of  colour.  October,  at  that  time,  affected  a  garb  which 
was  a  cross  between  that  of  a  cowboy  and  of  a  costermonger. 
He  had  on  an  enormous  slouch  hat,  smart  jacket  brightened 
up  with  bits  of  gay  ribbon,  scarlet  sash  round  his  waist, 
moleskin  trousers,  tight  down  to  the  knee,  and  from  that 
opened  out  like  bells  over  his  No.  19  boots.  After  the  break- 
ing was  over,  I  took  him  back  with  me  to  the  hotel,  and 
engaged  him  as  my  servant  at  £6  a  month.  It  was  not  likely 
that  I  should  miss  securing  such  a  treasure  as  I  recognised 
him  to  be.  Brave,  big-hearted  October  was  destined  to  be 
my  faithful  companion  through  many  adventures.  He  was 
always  the  same  willing,  devoted  helper.  Nothing  that  I 
could  do  or  say  would  make  the  slightest  difference  in  his 
dog-like  affection  for  the  *  baas '  he  loved.  Of  all  the  men  I 
have  ever  met,  had  I  to  choose  one  to  be  my  companion 
in  danger  against  man  or  beast,  I  would  select  October  ; 
for  he  knew  no  fear,  and  would  do  anything  I  told  him. 
He  was  a  man  of  simple  tastes,  and  needed  for  amusement, 
after  the  day's  work  was  done,  only  a  bottle  of  dop  (Cape 
brandy)  which  he  would  drink  with  one  of  his  vrows,  of  whom 
he  appeared  to  keep  a  relay  at  every  place  we  went  to. 
Not  wanting  the  whitey-brown  boy  for  ornament,  I  paid  him 
up,  and  saw  him  no  more. 

At  Craddock,  I  met  a  fine  specimen  of  an  English  Cape 
farmer  in  Mr  Hilton  Barber.  He  has  a  farm  of  over  100,000 
acres,  on  which,  among  other  things,  he  raises  ostriches  and 
racehorses.  He  is  fond  of  the  great  game  and  is  a  good 
sportsman.  The  custom  in  South  Africa  is  to  have  immense 
farms  ;  anything  under  50,000  acres  being  considered  a  small 
one.  A  Boer  does  not  feel  comfortable  if  he  can  see  from 
his  own  house  the  smoke  from  any  other  man's  chimney- 
Fortunately,  the  ambition  to  be  a  large  landed  proprietor 
in  that  part  of  the  world  can  be  easily  gratified  ;  for  land 
can  be  bought  right  out  for  from  half-a-crown  an  acre,  and 
upwards.  Owing  to  want  of  water,  much  of  the  land  is 


230  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

unproductive,  and  the  high  price  of  labour  restricts  the 
amount  of  tillage  within  very  narrow  limits.  Despite  high 
protective  duties,  the  most  of  the  corn,  and  even  of  the  flour, 
is  imported.  So  backward  is  the  practice  of  agriculture, 
that  market  gardening  is  almost  unknown,  except  in  Natal, 
where  it  is  assiduously  and  profitably  carried  on  by  natives 
of  India.  The  most  of  the  vegetables  eaten  by  white  men 
are  imported  in  tins !  So  scarce  are  fresh  vegetables  in 
up-country  towns,  that,  as  a  rule,  those  which  come  into 
the  market,  are  auctioned  off  singly.  It  is  nothing  un- 
common to  see  a  cauliflower  which  in  England  would  cost 
twopence,  knocked  down  to  the  highest  bidder  at  three 
shillings.  Throughout  Cape  Colony,  Natal,  the  Orange 
Free  State  and  the  Transvaal,  there  are  lots  of  well-watered 
ground  admirably  suited  for  market  gardening,  which  land 
might  be  cheaply  purchased  ;  but  no  one  seems  anxious 
to  enter  into  such  a  sound  speculation.  '  They  are  too  lazy  or 
too  well-off/  you,  my  readers,  will  possibly  remark.  Neither 
alternative,  I  think,  quite  explains  the  case,  which  is,  more 
probably,  one  arising  out  of  the  unsettled  state  of  men's 
minds  in  South  Africa,  where  booms  and  collapses  have 
followed  each  other  in  demoralisingly  rapid  succession. 
The  farmers  have  few  wants.  A  suit  of  clothes  lasts  them 
for  years.  They  don't  buy  books,  back  horses,  smoke  any 
tobacco  which  they  don't  grow,  drink  any  liquor  which 
they  don't  make,  or  eat  any  food  which  their  farms  do  not 
produce.  They  don't  keep  fast  society,  gamble,  go  to 
theatres,  or  '  take  any  delight  out  of  themselves,'  as  we  say 
in  Ireland.  With  a  minimum  of  trouble,  they  make  more 
than  they  can  spend  with  raising  cattle,  Angora  goats, 
merino  sheep  and  ostriches.  It  is  not  likely  that  they 
should  bother  about  anything  which  cannot  propagate  and 
develop  itself  without  assistance.  I  am  afraid  that  some 
of  them  are  just  a  little  lazy;  for  I  have  known  several 
instances  of  these  gentlemen  buying  harness  horses,  when 
they  had  hundreds  of  animals  running  wild  on  their  land ; 


So^tth  African  Horses.  231 

but  did  not  care  to  take  the  trouble  of  catching  those  they 
required  and  breaking  them  in. 

Among  the  South  African  farmers'  sources  of  income 
I  have  not  mentioned  horses,  which,  though  they  abound 
throughout  the  country,  do  not  bring  in  much  money 
to  their  breeders.  The  Cape  horse  of  thirty  years  ago, 
was  a  strong  serviceable  animal  that  was  well  up  to  re- 
mount form,  and  was  prized  in  cavalry  regiments  in  India. 
At  present  he  is  as  extinct  as  the  quagga.  His  place  is 
now  taken  by  a  weedy  slave,  who,  though  sound  and  hard- 
working, is  singularly  deficient  in  spirit  and  strength. 
Colonel  Swaine  who  commanded  the  nth  Hussars  when 
I  met  that  regiment  in  Natal,  told  me  that  is  was  impos- 
sible to  get  horses  which  had  speed  enough  for  purposes 
of  manoeuvre.  The  South  African  troopers  of  his  regiment 
were  a  very  'scratch'  lot,  and  cost  about  £40  apiece. 
The  average  unbroken  Cape  horse  fetches  about  £7.  The 
farmers  have  not  alone  to  contend  against  scarcity  of  grass 
from  want  of  water ;  but  are  menaced  every  season  by 
that  awful  equine  scourge,  'horse  sickness/  which  slays  an 
average  of,  probably,  20,000  horses  a  year.  With  the  fear 
of  this  terrible  plague  over  them,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the 
breeding  of  horses  is  neglected.  The  well-watered  parts  of 
South  Africa  are  admirably  suited  to  this  purpose ;  not 
alone  as  regards  ordinary  requirements,  but  even  for  racing, 
if  we  may  judge  by  the  capable  way  such  horses  as  Prose- 
cutor, Goschen,  Stockwell  and  others,  have  held  their  own 
against  imported  thoroughbreds. 

( Horse  sickness '  is  a  specific  fever,  the  symptoms  of 
which  more  or  less  resemble  those  of  anthrax,  from  which 
it  is  entirely  distinct  in  its  nature.  It  runs  a  rapid  course 
and  is  always  fatal.  It  is,  I  believe,  peculiar  to  South  Africa. 

Having  to  struggle  against  the  want  of  water  and  the  fre- 
quent occurrence  of  horse  sickness,  it  is  greatly  to  the  credit 
of  the  farmers  that  they  endeavour  to  improve  the  breed  of 
their  horses  as  much  as  they  do,  by  the  importation  of  fresh 


232  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

blood  and  by  the  establishment  of  agricultural  shows.  As  I 
was  asked  to  judge  at  several  of  these  shows  (Bloemfontein, 
Colesberg,  Pretoria,  Petermaritzburg,  etc.),  I  can  testify  to 
their  good  management. 

Throughout  South  Africa  there  are  an  immense  number 
of  horses  raised  in  a  semi-wild  state  on  the  various  farms. 
Very  few  of  these  animals  would  be  from  an  English,  Austra- 
lian, or  Indian  point  of  view,  worth  breaking  ;  for  the  priva- 
tions they  have  to  undergo  from  want  of  grass,  make  them 
weak  and  listless.  Four  of  them  harnessed  to  a  two-wheeled 
Cape  cart  or  a  dozen  of  them  attached  to  a  coach,  serve  their 
purpose  admirably  ;  for,  when  their  work  is  done,  they  need 
no  further  attention  than  to  be  turned  out  into  the  veldt  to 
cater  for  themselves ;  though  the  owner  may  at  times  pamper 
them  up  with  a  little  Indian  corn  and  some  oat  hay.  Such 
horses,  even  if  they  could  be  obtained  for  nothing,  would  not 
be  worth  exporting  to  India  or  to  any  other  country.  The 
really  serviceable  horses,  say,  those  up  to  light  cavalry  re- 
mount form,  would  fetch  more  money  in  South  Africa  than 
in  India.  Consequently,  we  may  regard  the  exportation  of 
horses  from  Africa  as  a  thing  of  the  past  ;  at  least,  for  many 
years  to  come,  and  until  a  preventive  to  horse  sickness  has 
been  discovered. 

While  I  was  at  Craddock,  Mr  Hilton  Barber  sent  me  over, 
to  experiment  on,  a  five-year-old  mare  which  had  never  been 
handled,  and  which,  from  having  been  allowed  her  liberty  so 
long,  had  become  very  artful.  Expecting  to  see  the  mare  led 
into  the  ring,  I  was  greatly  surprised  to  see  her  driven  into  an 
adjoining  yard  in  company  with  two  or  three  other  loose 
horses.  This  was  my  first  experience  of  having  to  tackle  an 
absolutely  wild  loose  horse.  Though  she  hit  out  all  round, 
and  was  cunning  and  quick,  I  put  on  a  halter  by  means  of  a 
long  stick  without  much  difficulty.  My  real  trouble  now 
began  ;  for  nothing  would  induce  her  to  '  lead.5  She  fought 
and  struggled  and  when  she  found  that  she  could  not  get 
away,  she  threw  herself  so  violently  on  the  ground  that  I 


Bloemfontein.  233 

thought  she  would  kill  herself.  As  often  as  I  forced  her  on 
her  legs,  so  often  would  she  throw  herself  down,  the  moment 
I  tried  to  put  any  restraint  on  her.  Seeing  that  this  was  a 
determined  case  of  '  sulks '  which  would  be  tedious  to  cure, 
and  not  knowing  how  to  get  her  into  the  breaking  ring  with- 
out injury  to  her,  I  passed  her  over,  and  took  another  subject, 
which,  I  thought,  would  make  a  better  show.  I  frankly  con- 
fess that  this  mare  defeated  me ;  for  I  had  never  before  met 
any  animal  quite  of  her  sort.  I  may  plead,  as  some  excuse, 
that  the  flooring  of  this  yard  was  so  hard  that  any  attempt  to 
break  her  on  it  was  quite  out  of  the  question.  As  my  break- 
ing ring  was  in  an  open  field,  I  could  not  catch  her  in  it.  On 
the  other  hand,  although  I  was  able  to  halter  her  in  the 
yard,  I  could  not  induce  her  to  lead  out  of  it  without  the  risk 
of  her  injuring  herself  against  the  trees  and  stones  which  were 
in  it. 

From  Craddock,  October  and  I  went  to  Bloemfontein, 
which  is  the  capital  of  the  Orange  Free  State.  There  I  met 
some  very  kind  friends  in  Mr  Rietz  the  President,  Mr  Williams 
of  Tempe,  Mr  Raafe  the  High  Sheriff,  and  others.  I  was 
now  with  the  Boers,  among  whom  news  travels  so  slowly 
that  I  thought  it  advisable  to  give  a  free  show  to  His  Honour 
the  President,  Mrs  Rietz,  and  a  few  representative  gentlemen. 
To  test  my  skill,  they  brought  me  a  horse  which  no  one  had 
previously  been  able  to  handle,  and  which  had  been  given  up 
as  a  bad  job  by  the  best  Boer  breakers.  It  was  driven  in 
loose  into  the  showyard,  and  I  haltered  it  as  soon  as  I  got  it 
into  a  corner.  It  showed  plenty  of  fight  without  any  sulking, 
and  accordingly  gave  in  after  a  short  time,  so  that  October 
and  also  one  of  the  local  grooms  could  ride  it  about  quietly. 
As  my  audience  were  thorough  horsemen,  they  greatly  appre- 
ciated the  quickness  and  efficacy  of  my  methods  of  breaking. 
I  got  up  a  good  class,  which  gave  me  a  flattering  testimonial 
in  Dutch. 

Although  the  Free  State  Boers  helped  their  cousins  of  the 
subsequently  formed  South  African  Republic,  during  the 


234  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

Transvaal  war,  they  have  very  friendly  feelings  towards  the 
English.  They  are  fond  of  horses  and  pay  a  good  deal  of 
attention  to  breeding. 

From  Bloemfontein  I  went  to  Colesberg,  which,  though 
only  a  village,  is  the  capital  of  the  best  horse-breeding  dis- 
trict in  Cape  Colony.  Hearing  that  my  teaching  was  well 
worth  the  two  guineas  a  head  I  was  charging  for  it,  all  the 
young  farmers  of  the  place  trooped  in  and  paid  their  money. 
I  had  lots  of  good  subjects,  and  left  behind  me  a  large  num- 
ber of  expert  horsebreakers,  who,  I  know,  will  remember 
their  old  instructor  with  kindly  feelings  for  many  a  year.  I 
must  say  that  I  have  never  met  men  more  anxious  to 
learn  sound,  practical  work  about  horses  than  these  young 
South  African  farmers.  Having  been  outrageously  swindled 
time  after  time  by  so-called  Englishmen,  who  are  mostly 
east-end  Jews,  the  Boers  naturally  regard  every  man  who 
speaks  English  as  a  thief.  But  if  one  is  fortunate  enough  to 
gain  their  confidence,  they  will  give  it  entirely  without  reserve. 

At  Colesberg  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  the  Van  Zeils, 
who  are  wealthy  landowners  and  great  lovers  of  horses,  and 
Alec  Robertson  of  Stormfontein,  who  goes  in  largely  for  the 
breeding  of  thoroughbreds,  and  with  capital  results.  He  and 
Mr  Homan,  another  rare  good  sportsman,  owned  Candlemas, 
who  is  full  brother  of  St  Blaise.  Although  Candlemas  was  a 
terribly  bad  roarer,  all  his  stock  are  sound  in  their  wind. 
The  same  can  be  said  of  the  *  noisy '  Belladrum,  who  after 
winning  the  Two  Thousand  Guineas  was  sent  out  to  the  Cape 
for  breeding  purposes.  His  produce  did  no  good  ;  as  they 
almost  all  turned  out  light  in  bone  and  were  weedy.  I  may 
remark  that  roaring,  although  common  in  damp,  cold  climates, 
is  practically  unknown  in  dry  warm  ones  like  South  Africa, 
India,  and  Arabia.  It  is  far  less  frequent  in  Australasia  than 
at  home.  Big  horses  are  more  liable  to  it  than  small  ones  ; 
and  grain-fed  animals,  than  those  which  are  restricted  to  grass. 
From  Colesberg  I  went  to  Kimberley,  at  which  place  I  had 
arranged  for  my  wife  to  meet  me. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

The  Diamond  Fields — Lecturing  at  Kimberley — Badly  reported — The  De 
Beers  Company — '  Squaring '  Governments — '  Trapping ' — '  I.  D.  B.' — 
Taking  the  '  Sulk '  out  of  a  Horse — The  Horse  and  the  Goat — Equine 
Friendships — *  Wasters  '  and  '  Remittance  Men ' — Captain  Goodwood — 
Broken-down  Officers — Manners  and  Customs  in  South  Africa — The 
Kimberley  Exhibition. 

AS  I  had  a  letter  of  introduction  from  my  fellow  clubs- 
man,  Captain  Gordon  Hughes,  the  well-known  pigeon 
shot,  to  Captain  R.  E.  Wallace,  who  is  one  of  the  chief  dia- 
mond valuers  to  the  De  Beers  Company,  and  as  our  names 
by  that  time  were  well  known  through  the  country,  we  got 
to  know  all  the  good  people  at  Kimberley  very  quickly.  At 
that  time  the  inhabitants  were  enjoying  the  calm  before  the 
storm  which  Mr  Rhodes  was  preparing  for  them.  Knowing 
that  Kimberley  was  the  hot-bed  of  I.  D.  B.,  he  had  issued 
orders  that  it  was  to  be  destroyed  by  removing  all  the  em- 
ployes of  the  De  Beers  Company  from  it  and  locating  them 

235 


236  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

in  the  new  town  of  Kenilworth  entirely  by  themselves.  He 
arranged  that  their  wants  should  be  supplied  by  company's 
stores  on  terms  against  which  no  private  individual  in  Kim- 
berley  could  compete,  and  gave  them  every  facility  for  recrea- 
tion and  amusement.  The  streets  of  smart  shops,  the  broad 
roads  with  fine  trees  on  each  side,  the  luxuriously  built  villas, 
the  large  hotels,  the  best  club  in  South  Africa  were  all  doomed 
to  decay  in  the  near  future.  Yet  a  short  respite  was  given  ; 
for  the  South  African  Exhibition  was  to  be  held  at  Kimberley 
in  four  or  five  months'  time.  Many  of  the  residents  deeming 
the  first  loss  the  least,  had  disposed  of  their  property  for  what 
it  would  fetch  and  had  departed,  in  the  majority  of  instances, 
to  Johannesburg,  or  the  Randt  as  it  is  familiarly  called.  But 
others  held  on  in  the  hope  of  making  a  fortune  during  the 
three  months  of  exhibition  time.  These  men  are  so  accus- 
tomed to  take  the  rough  with  the  smooth,  the  lean  with  the 
fat  of  life,  that  they  seemed  to  be  but  little  affected  by  their 
impending  financial  doom.  Anyhow,  the  tightness  of  money, 
about  which  I  had  heard  and  read  a  good  deal,  luckily  did  not 
prevent  them  from  coming  to  my  class. 

In  order  to  explain  my  programme  and  to  put  myself  en 
rapport  with  the  people,  I  gave  a  lecture  one  evening  in  the 
Town  Hall  on  horsebreaking,  and  Mr  Lawrence,  the  mayor, 
very  kindly  took  the  chair.  I  felt  myself  in  good  form,  told 
lots  of  yarns,  made  the  audience  laugh,  and  must  have  spoken 
well ;  for  after  my  talk  was  over,  I  had  a  large  number  of 
applicants  to  join  my  class.  Although  I  may  carefully  think 
over  what  I  am  going  to  say,  and  may  even  jot  down  a  few 
short  notes  to  be  used  while  I  am  speaking,  I  always  find 
that  when  I  begin  to  talk  about  horses  from  a  platform,  the 
subject  carries  me  away,  so  that  I  am  guided  neither  by  notes 
nor  by  any  pre-arranged  plan.  In  this  I  believe  I  am  no 
loser ;  for  if  I  were  to  pay  more  attention  than  I  do  to  the 
choice  of  my  words  and  to  the  construction  of  my  sentences, 
I  would  weaken  the  interest  of  the  audience  in  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  discourse.  Besides,  when  a  man  is  thinking 


Kimberley.  237 

of  his  words  (as  when  reading  from  a  book,  or  when  repeat- 
ing by  heart)  or  of  himself,  more  than  of  his  subject,  he  can 
rarely  help  pitching  his  voice  in  too  high  a  key,  and,  conse- 
quently, in  an  unnatural  tone  of  voice,  which,  however  beau- 
tiful the  words  or  admirable  the  reasoning,  will  fail  to  impress 
the  hearer.  During  the  forenoon  of  the  day  on  which  I 
was  to  lecture  at  Kimberley,  Mr  Wilson,  the  editor  of  the 
Diamond  Fields  Advertiser \  came  to  see  me  at  the  Grand 
Hotel  and  asked  me  to  give  his  reporter  before  I  went  on 
the  platform  a  copy  of  the  address  I  was  going  to  deliver, 
so  that  it  might  appear  to  the  best  possible  advantage 
in  the  newspaper  next  morning,  and  would  thus  be  free 
from  any  errors  the  shorthand  man  might  make.  I  grate- 
fully thanked  him,  and  promised  compliance ;  but  was  so 
occupied  with  visitors  that  day,  that  I  forgot  all  about  the 
promised  manuscript.  As  I  was  dressing  for  dinner  before 
going  up  to  the  Town  Hall,  I  suddenly  remembered  that  I 
was  to  give  a  copy  of  my  lecture  to  the  reporter.  As  there 
was  then  no  time  to  write  it,  I  thought  I  might  utilise  an 
article  which  I  had  very  carefully  written  on  the  same  subject 
for  another  paper ;  but  which  I  had  kept  back  for  some 
reason  or  the  other.  This  I  handed  to  the  reporter  on  my 
arrival  at  the  hall,  with  the  uncomfortable  feeling  that  my 
audience  would,  after  reading  their  paper  on  the  following 
morning,  conclude  that  the  local  proof  reader  had  outrage- 
ously embellished  my  discourse  of  the  preceding  evening. 
When  I  saw  Mr  Wilson  on  the  next  night  he  laughingly  told 
me  that  I  had  unwittingly  placed  him  in  a  very  awkward  posi- 
tion ;  for  several  of  his  subscribers  who  had  heard  my  yarn 
and  who  had  read  its  supposed  reproduction  in  the  newspaper, 
had  written  to  him  saying  that  it  was  a  disgrace  to  Kimberley 
that  such  an  admirable  lecture  should  have  been  so  badly 
reported. 

The  great  success  of  the  De  Beers  Company  is  due  to 
their  having  been  able  to  buy  up  the  mines  of  their  rivals, 
and  to  hold  I.  D.  B.  (illicit  diamond  buying)  in  check. 


238  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

In  both  these  immense  undertakings  the  genius  of  Mr 
Rhodes  has  helped  them  greatly.  To  make  a  '  corner '  in 
diamonds,  he  had  to  be  strong ;  but  to  keep  I.  D.  B.  in 
control,  he  had  also  to  work  on  the  fine  old  principle  that 
every  man  has  his  price.  As  English  law  supposes  that 
everyone  is  innocent  until  proved  guilty,  and  that  the  burden 
of  proof  lies  on  the  person  who  asserts  the  affirmative,  it 
was  manifestly  inadequate  to  grapple  with  this  contra- 
band trade.  The  De  Beers  people  accordingly  drafted  out 
laws  which,  they  considered,  would  meet  their  difficulty ; 
and  by  judicious  '  squaring '  induced  the  Cape  Parliament 
to  put  them  into  force.  It  would  be  preposterous  to  suppose 
that  if  the  House  of  Assembly  had  not  been  '  squared,'  and 
very  well  '  squared,'  too,  it  would  have  enacted  that  anyone 
found  in  possession  of  an  uncut  diamond  could,  without 
further  evidence,  be  sent  to  penal  servitude,  unless  that  he 
or  she  could  conclusively  prove  that  the  stone  had  been 
lawfully  obtained  ;  that  conviction  would  follow  such  de- 
tected possession,  even  if  the  accused  person  could  prove 
that  he  or  she  had  innocently  obtained  the  diamond  from 
police  officers  of  the  company  who  had  given  it  with  the 
deliberate  intention  of  betraying  the  receiver ;  and  that  all 
such  convictions  were  summary,  without  any  trial  by  jury. 
The  company  make  no  secret  about  this  system  of  '  trap- 
ping/ which  they  try  to  excuse  on  the  plea  that  it  is 
essential  to  their  existence,  and  aver  that  it  is  never  put 
in  force,  except  against  those  whom  they  have  good  reason 
to  know  are  engaged  in  the  illicit  traffic.  As  their  de- 
tectives obtain  rewards  for  convictions,  innocent  people  are, 
of  course,  now  and  then  trapped.  The  victims,  however 
have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that  although  it  is  naturally 
a  hardship  to  have  to  'do  time'  on  the  'breakwater'  at 
Cape  Town,  where  they  are  sent  for  I.  D.  B.,  it  is  not  much 
of  a  disgrace  in  the  eyes  of  the  South  African  public,  who, 
directly  or  indirectly,  have  had  a  fairly  large  connection 
with  the  game.  Not  alone  was  the  policy  of  '  squaring ' 


/.  D.  B.  .     239 

legislative  assemblies  successful  in  the  Cape  Colony,  in  which 
the  possessions  of  the  De  Beers  Company  lie ;  but  it  was 
also  extended  with  equally  facile  results  to  the  neighbouring, 
though  foreign,  Governments  of  the  Transvaal  and  Orange 
Free  State.  Viewed  from  purely  a  commercial  point  of 
view,  I  do  not  see  that  the  De  Beers  people  are  either  to 
be  praised  or  blamed  for  their  handling  of  the  I.  D.  B. 
question.  If  they  have  adopted  discreditable  means  to 
accomplish  their  ends ;  their  enemies,  who  had  begun  the 
battle,  fought  even  more  unfairly. 

I.  D.  B.  is  a  subject  around  which  a  great  deal  of  romance 
has  centered  in  the  minds  of  emotional  people  in  South 
Africa.  We  have  had  pointed  out  to  us  the  Jew  millionaire 
whose  prolific  chere  amie  used  to  go  to  England  every  year 
for  her  annual  interesting  event  On  one  particular  im- 
portant occasion,  having  her  feet  firmly  planted  on  English 
ground,  she  refused  to  deliver  up  the  burden  she  carried 
until  her  'friend1  had  made  her  an  'honest  woman.'  This 
he  did  with  the  best  grace  he  could ;  for  he  regarded  her 
as  a  lesser  evil  than  the  loss  of  his  uncut  diamonds.  There 
were  the  Africander  or  native  *  runners,'  who,  before  the 
'  squaring '  of  the  Orange  Free  State,  used  to  carry  '  parcels ' 
across  the  frontier  on  specially-trained  racehorses.  These 
'  boys '  took  a  pride  in  their  hazardous  calling,  and  used  to 
swagger  about  Kimberley  in  the  smartest  of  riding  toggery, 
drinking  champagne  at  a  guinea  a  bottle,  smoking  half- 
crown  cigars  and  generally  misconducting  themselves.  The 
female  detectives  of  course  made  a  point  to  'trap'  their 
rivals  in  love.  A  policemen  who  had  been  censured  for 
'slackness'  for  not  obtaining  convictions,  induced,  after  a 
great  deal  of  persuasion,  a  friend,  who  was  far  from  well 
off,  to  lend  him  five  pounds,  and  after  insisting  on  his 
benefactor  keeping  in  pledge  an  uncut  stone  which  he  gave 
him,  informed  on  him,  with  the  result  that  the  unfortunate 
friend  got  three  years  penal  servitude.  Another  policeman 
put  two  of  his  friends,  with  whom  he  used  to  go  on  short 


240  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

trips  across  the  frontier  to  shoot,  into  a  serious  predicament 
by,  when  he  was  over  the  *  line '  one  day,  bidding  his  friends 
good-bye  and  riding  off  towards  Natal  with,  of  course,  a 
'  parcel '  concealed  somewhere  about  him.  There  were  lots 
of  stories  about  the  detectives  who  used  to  fish  along  the 
roads  by  means  of  uncut  stones  which  they  laid  down  as 
ground  bait,  and  when,  from  their  place  of  concealment, 
they  saw  a  verdant  passer-by  pick  up  the  diamond  and  go 
on  as  if  nothing  particular  had  occurred,  they  would  sally 
forth,  seize  him,  and  bear  him  off  to  summary  injustice.  As 
many  of  the  female's  '  tees '  were  also  demi-mondaines^  they 
had  unusually  good  facilities,  which  they  fully  utilised,  for 
'  trapping '  their  lovers. 

One  of  the  first  horses  given  to  me  to  break-in  at 
Kimberley  was  a  black  stallion  that  was  driven  along  with 
his  harem  of  about  a  dozen  mares  into  the  enclosure  in  which 
I  was  holding  my  class.  He  was  about  six  years  old,  and 
was  so  wild  and  violent  that  although  he  had  been  caught 
once  or  twice,  he  had  successfully  resisted  all  efforts  which 
had  been  made  to  secure  him.  In  a  short  time  I  had  him 
saddled,  and  gave  October  the  signal  to  mount.  The 
hitherto  untamed  one  carried  his  black  burden  quietly  round 
the  ring,  and  allowed  the  Basuto  to  dismount  and  mount 
again  without  making  any  attempt  at  '  playing  up.'  Not 
alone  had  all  idea  of  active  hostility  against  his  captors  been 
removed  out  of  his  mind ;  but  the  far  more  difficult  task 
of  '  taking  the  sulk  out  of  him '  had  been  accomplished  for 
the  time  being.  His  education  was  now  so  far  advanced, 
that  he  would  require  only  a  few  more  lessons  of  far  less 
severity  than  the  first,  to  confirm  the  habit  of  obedience. 

Almost  all  the  horses  that  were  brought  to  me  at  Kim- 
berley were  semi-wild  ones  which  were  driven  in  off  the  veldt. 
One  of  these  subjects  was  followed  into  the  ring  by  a  goat; 
which  tried  to  butt  everyone  who  attempted  to  make  him 
quit  his  equine  friend.  The  goat  appeared  to  take  an  intelli- 
gent interest  in  the  proceedings,  and  as  soon  as  I  had 


4  Remittance  Men . '  241 

finished  with  his  companion,  and  had  driven  him  out  of  the 
enclosure,  the  goat  followed  him,  and  the  strange  pair  went 
off  at  full  gallop  to  the  distant  pasturage,  from  which  they 
had  been  taken.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  this  friendship 
had  been  cemented  while  these  animals  were  in  a  practically 
wild  state.  While  at  Cape  Town  I  noticed  the  existence  of  a 
friendship  between  a  horse  and  a  cow,  both  of  whom,  by 
keeping  constantly  together,  showed  that  they  valued  each 
other's  society.  On  more  than  one  occasion,  I  have  known 
amicable  relations  to  be  entertained  between  a  cat  and  a 
horse.  In  such  instances  the  love  of  puss  appeared  to  me  to 
be  wholly  selfish,  and  that  she  liked  to  lie  on  the  horse's 
back,  because  it  supplied  her  with  a  warm  couch,  from  which 
this  inveterate  lover  of  ease  and  pleasure  could  watch  the 
movements  of  the  mice  that  came  out  in  search  of  the  grains 
of  corn  which  had  fallen  from  the  manger.  A  racing  pony 
mare  which  I  owned,  and  which  was  barren,  indulged  in  the 
kindly  freak,  when  she  had  been  turned  out  to  grass  in  her 
old  age,  of  adopting  a  motherless  foal,  and  was  never  happy 
unless  it  was  close  to  her  side.  Captain  Beresford  of  the 
Royal  Artillery  once  had  in  India  a  racing  pony  called  Pot- 
boy, who  would  go  nowhere  unless  he  was  accompanied  by  a 
particularly  ugly  and  worthless  pony  mare,  who  accordingly 
spent  her  time  walking  about  training  grounds  and  attending 
race  meetings,  at  which  her  friend  Potboy  was  engaged  to  run. 
If  she  did  not  go  down  with  him  to  the  starting-post,  he  would 
persistently  refuse  to  go  forward  when  the  flag  was  dropped. 

A  man  who  has  seen  the  world,  and  especially  if  he  has 
been  a  soldier,  is  certain  to  meet  with  in  South  Africa  some 
of  his  companions  of  former  days  and  of  different  scenes. 
The  majority  of  these  exiles  are  '  wasters,'  as  a  rule,  from 
'  drink,'  though  in  a  few  cases  absolute  incapacity  for  busi- 
ness is  their  only  fault  One  in  twenty,  to  take  a  liberal 
estimate,  makes  money,  and  attains  to  a  good  position.  In 
all  *  foreign  parts '  are  to  be  found  a  class  of  Englishmen, 
who,  to  use  a  New  Zealand  expression,  we  may  call  '  remit- 

Q 


242  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

tance  men/  on  account  of  their  always  averring,  when  seek- 
ing temporary  assistance,  that  they  are  waiting  for  a  remit- 
tance from  home.  Such  folk,  as  a  rule,  are  no  good  either  to 
themselves  or  to  the  colony  in  which  they  reside ;  for  with 
few  exceptions  they  prefer  to  '  cadge  '  and  *  loaf '  on  anyone 
who  is  good-natured  enough  to  listen  to  their  tale  of  woe, 
than  to  pull  off  their  coats,  roll  up  their  sleeves,  and  work. 
However  graphically  they  may  '  tell  the  tale  '  about  the  love 
which  their  rich  relations  in  England  bear  to  them,  the  fact 
remains  that  the  said  '  friends  '  are  delighted  to  have  seen 
the  last  of  them,  and  would  on  no  account  send  them  money 
to  return  and  annoy  the  family.  Making  them  '  shift '  for 
themselves  is  the  truest  kindness.  To  give  a  case  in  point,  I 
may  relate  that  of  Captain  Goodwood  (which  is  not  far  from 
his  name),  who  was  in  the  service  when  I  knew  him  in  India. 
He  was  then  a  tall,  smart,  good-looking  fellow,  fond  of 
horses,  hospitable,  *  good  company,'  member  of  a  very  old 
family,  and  close  to  the  succession  of  an  earldom  ;  but 
volatile.  In  fact,  so  much  so  that  he  took  no  pleasure 
in  doing  anything  that  was  staid.  On  account  of  his 
connections  and  pleasant  manners,  his  colonel  '  stood  '  him 
as  long  as  he  could,  and  then  gave  him  the  best  possible 
advice.  The  next  place  I  met  him  was  at  a  horse  show  at  a 
country  town  where  he  was  a  local  magnate  on  account  of 
having  married  a  charming  young  lady  of  great  wealth, 
every  penny  of  which  her  guardians,  knowing  their  man,  had 
insisted  on  putting  under  her  entire  control.  I  lost  sight  of 
him  for  a  year,  and  then  met  him  in  London,  looking  as  de- 
bonnaire  and  well  dressed  as  ever,  though  with  a  slight  sus- 
picion of  anxiety  in  his  eyes.  He  appeared  overjoyed  to  see 
me — why  I  could  not  just  then  tell — and  begged  me  to  come 
that  evening  to  supper  at  his  rooms  ;  the  address  of  which 
he  gave  me.  I  went  there,  and  met,  besides  my  host,  his 
brother,  and  a  couple  of  men  who  had  that  undefinable  some- 
thing about  them  which  indicated  more  the  bird  of  prey  than 
the  homely  pigeon  or  goose.  We  sat  down  to  play  a  game 


A  Game  at  Cards.  243 

of  cards  called   Marmora,  in  which  three  cards  are  placed 
face  downwards  on  the  table  in  front  of  each  player,  and  one 
card  is  turned  up  as  the  trump.     A  pool  having  been  formed, 
the  player  on  the  left  of  the  dealer  is  asked  how  much  he 
will    '  go ' ;    his  chance   of  winning  being   that  one   of  his 
three  cards,  none  of  which  he  has  as  yet  seen,  will  be  of  the 
same   suit   and   of  higher   value   than   the   turned-up   card. 
Naturally,  if  a  two  or  a  three  of,  for  instance,  hearts  has  been 
exposed,  the  player  will  feel  justified  in  thinking  that  he  has 
among  his  three  cards  a  heart  which  will  beat  it,  and  will 
'  go  the  lot,'  or  a  good  part  of  it.      Having   declared   the 
amount  of  his  bet,  he  will  turn  up  his  three  cards,  whether 
he  has  to  draw  the  money  from  the  pool,  or  in  the  event  of 
his  losing,  to  pay  an  equal  amount  into  it.     The  next  player 
will  then  be  asked  how  much  he  will  '  go,'  and  so  on.     The 
amount  in  the  pool  will    naturally  fluctuate  greatly ;   for  it 
may  have  to  be  frequently  made  up  by  general  subscription, 
or  it  may  increase  to  a  very  high  value  by  a  rapid  succession 
of  bold    though  unlucky   declarations.       My  host's   brother 
and  myself  played  the  game  in  a  way  which  even  Cavendish 
would  have  admired,  and  went  '  the  lot '  only  when  a  two  or 
a  three  was  turned  up,  which  was  frequently  ;  but  fortune  or 
skill  proved   monotonously  unkind.      The  strangers   on  the 
contrary   played  with  seemingly   the  most  deplorable  reck- 
lessness, and  went  '  the  lot '  even  when   a  knave  or  a  ten 
was  against  them,  and  always  won  when  the  pool  was  big. 
I  did  not  continue  this  game  long  ;  but  quite  long  enough  to 
lose   a   considerable   sum,  as  it  was  very  '  warm '  while   it 
lasted.      Although  from  the  peculiar  and   remarkably  skil- 
ful manner  in  which  the  strangers  manipulated  the  cards,  I 
thought  I  had  reason  to  suspect  that  they  had  played  with 
what  Mr  Labouchere  calls  '  the  advantages ; '  I  payed  up  and 
went  away,  vowing  that  I  would  have  nothing  further  to  do 
with  a  gentleman  who  cultivated  the  acquaintance  of  such 
highly-gifted  card-players.     Sometime  afterwards,  I  was  glad 
to  hear  that  Captain    Goodwood's   friends,  not   being  satis- 


244  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

fied  with  his  ways,  had  renounced  him  and  all  his  works, 
and  with  commendable  fortitude  had  decided  that  he  should 
never  again  spend  a  single  penny  of  their  money.  I  heard  no 
further  tidings  of  him  for  several  years,  and  concluded  that 
he  had  had  the  good  taste  to  die,  until  I  happened  one  day 
in  South  Africa  to  go  into  a  wayside  bar  to  have  a  drink. 
As  I  laid  down  the  glass  my  eyes  fell  on  a  well-known  face, 
sodden  with  bad  brandy  and  worse  whisky,  yet  having  in  it 
a  few  traces  of  those  of  a  soldier  and  a  gentleman.  I  felt 
sorry  enough  for  the  poor  waif,  in  whom  I  recognised  the 
once  handsome  and  brilliant  Captain  Goodwood,  to  take  him 
into  lunch,  and  give  him  as  much  food  as  he  could  eat,  and 
as  much  liquor  as  I  thought  good  for  him  to  drink.  When 
he  had  lighted  a  cigar,  and  had  poured  out  his  second  or 
third  glass  of  Benedictine,  I  threw  off  the  role  of  stranger 
which  I  had  assumed,  and  addressing  him  by  name,  asked 
him  in  a  cheery  way  how  he  had  been  getting  on.  In  his 
old  light-hearted  way  he  described  his  adventures,  and  how 
he  had  at  last  settled  down  as  a  simple  member  of  the  Cape 
Mounted  Police  on  the  inclusive  pay  of  five  shillings  a  day, 
out  of  which  he  had  to  keep  his  horse,  and  to  feed,  lodge  and 
clothe  himself.  I  could  not  help  thinking  that  he  was  much 
better  thus  than  at  his  old  games  in  town,  after  which  his 
soul  hankered  day  and  night. 

Another  old  acquaintance  I  met  was  one  of  the  good- 
natured  fool  sort.  He  had  been  second  in  command  of  a 
smart  Hussar  regiment,  had  left  the  service,  and  had  drifted 
out  to  South  Africa,  where  his  too  readily  made  friends  had 
robbed  him  of  all  his  ready  money,  and  left  him  in  the  old, 
old  way,  waiting  for  remittances.  Another  man  whom  I 
knew  slightly,  and  who  had  commanded  a  distinguished  in- 
fantry regiment,  hawks  milk  round  Johannesburg.  I  am  afraid 
that  soldiering  is  not  a  very  good  training  for  life  in 
South  Africa. 

Literary  globe  trotters  who  come  out  to  South  Africa  and 
publish  their  impressions  de  voyage,  have  viewed,  as  a  rule, 


South  African  Customs.  245 

the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people  from  a  wrong  stand- 
point. Having,  generally,  been  accustomed  to  the  society  of 
people  of  good  education  and  of  sufficient  leisure  to  cultivate 
the  refinements  of  comfort,  if  not  of  luxury  ;  they  do  not 
realise  the  fact  that  the  moneyed  people  with  whom  they 
associate  in  South  Africa  are  the  representatives  of  the 
artisans  and  tradesmen  of  England  and  Holland.  Conse- 
quently, it  is  unfair  to  apply  to  them  a  standard  of  culture 
which  is  not  appropriate  to  their  class.  In  the  education 
which  is  to  be  derived  from  social  intercourse  as  well  as  from 
books,  South  Africa  has  of  late  years  made  rapid  strides,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  but  that  in  the  near  future,  when  society  has 
settled  down,  the  most  of  the  relics  of  barbarism,  which  either 
amuse  or  annoy  the  visitor,  will  be  removed,  even  before  they 
are  things  of  the  past  in  the  parent  countries.  The  member 
of  the  Athenaeum,  Carlton,  or  Army  and  Navy  Club  who 
comes  out,  probably  remarks  that  the  ordinary  man  whom 
he  meets,  cares  but  little  for  art,  science  or  literature  ;  that  he 
pronounces  the  words  *  clerk  '  and  '  Derby '  as  they  are  spelt ; 
that  when  speaking  of  his  wife,  he  calls  her  Mrs  (whatever 
her  surname  may  be) ;  that  he  considers  a  lady  a  fine 
musician  if  she  can  play  a  waltz  on  the  piano  ;  that  when 
comfortably  seated  he  is  not  particularly  inclined  to  jump 
up  and  offer  his  seat  to  a  lady  who  is  obliged  to  stand  for 
want  of  a  place  to  sit  on  ;  that  when  ladies  are  present,  he 
sometimes  thinks  it  superfluous  to  ask  their  permission  if  he 
wishes  to  light  his  pipe  or  cigar ;  and  that  he  sees  no  harm  in 
cleaning  his  nails  in  public  and  even  at  meals.  The  visitor 
will  also  be  surprised  to  find  that  at  hotels  the  waiter  invari- 
ably brings  him  cold  instead  of  hot  milk  with  his  coffee  ;  and 
that  the  horrible  cesspool  system  of  sanitation  is  almost  uni- 
versal up  country.  If,  however,  he  be  a  man  of  the  wide,  and 
not  only  of  his  own  narrow,  world,  he  will  know  that  in 
similar  grades  of  life  in  Holland  and  in  England,  the  people 
are  equally,  if  not  more,  deficient  in  education  and  refinement. 
As  regards  any  want  there  may  be  of  studied  courtesy  to- 


246  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

wards  women,  we  must  remember  that  South  African  ideas 
on  that  important  subject  are,  to  a  certain  extent,  those  of 
the  Dutch  farmers,  who  look  upon  their  womankind  more  as 
useful  household  drudges  than  as  intellectual  equals.  At  the 
same  time,  I  must  say  that  if  these  colonists  do  not  make  a 
great  parade  of  their  politeness  to  ladies,  it  is  not  for  want  of 
goodness  of  heart ;  for  they  could  not  possibly  be  kinder  or 
more  obliging  than  they  are  to  them  in  any  time  of  need. 
The  one  thing  which  they  do  not  go  in  for  is  '  style.'  Their 
saddlery  is  the  commonest  stuff  which  comes  out  of  England, 
and  is  rarely  cleaned.  Their  bits  and  stirrup-irons  are  never 
touched  with  a  burnisher ;  and  their  horses  are  seldom 
groomed.  No  doubt  it  is  better  to  have  them  as  they  are, 
than  to  burden  their  minds  with  refinements  of  culture  which 
would  be  of  no  use  to  them  in  their  rough  life.  The  rising 
generation  in  South  Africa  are  to  be  admired  for  their  inde- 
pendence and  readiness  of  resource. 

My  wife's  pluck  and  skill  in  riding  bad  horses  and  those 
that  had  never  been  previously  bridled  or  saddled  were 
immensely  admired,  especially  by  the  Kimberley  ladiesr 
whom  I  had  put  on  the  free  list ;  as  they  were  all  either  wives, 
daughters,  or  sisters  of  the  members  of  my  class.  As  almost 
all  the  men-  had  a  great  deal  to  do  practically  with  horses, 
they  were  never  tired  of  listening  to  me  while  I  held  forth  on 
my  favourite  subject,  or  of  watching  me  handling,  mouthing, 
and  teaching  to  jump  the  animals  they  brought  me.  Need- 
less to  say  that  my  cup  of  happiness  was  full.  Our  work  here 
was  so  warmly  appreciated,  that  the  committee  of  the  South 
African  Exhibition,  which  was  to  be  held  four  months  later  in 
Kimberley,  invited  me  to  hold  performances  during  the  three 
months  of  the  Exhibition  time.  They  offered  me  seventy- 
five  per  cent,  of  the  '  gate '  and  promised  that  they  would  pay 
all  expenses  for  advertising,  seating,  and  lighting.  The  offer- 
ing of  these  liberal  terms  was  a  good  proof  that  they  con- 
sidered that  our  show  would  be  a  big  *  draw.'  Unfortunately, 
I  was  unable  to  fulfil  this  engagement ;  for  the  rough  work 


Kimberley.  247 

through  which  we  subsequently  went,  injuriously  affected  my 
wife's  health  so  much,  that  she  felt  it  would  be  impossible  for 
her  to  bear  the  fatigue  of  riding  day  after  day  at  the  Exhibi- 
tion. As  I  would  have  to  run  the  affair  entirely  as  a  show 
and  not  as  a  class,  I  felt  that  I  could  not  work  it  properly 
single-handed.  I  had  intended  to  have  gone  home  and  to 
have  brought  out  some  big  jumping  horses  ;  but  the  time  was 
too  short  to  make  these  arrangements.  So,  greatly  to  our 
regret,  we  were  unable  to  return  to  Kimberley. 


Photo,  by  M.  H.  Hayes. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

DIAMONDS. 

THESE  precious  stones  form  such  a  large  industry  in 
South  Africa,  that  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  if  I 
give  them  a  short  chapter  to  themselves. 

They  are  obtained  either  by  mining  or  by  surface  washing. 
The  former  operation  is  incomparably  the  more  important 
one  of  the  two,  and  as  it  requires  a  large  capital,  it  is  worked 
by  companies.  The  latter  is  the  sole  kind  of  diamond  hunt- 
ing open  to  private  enterprise,  and  is  pursued,  principally,  on 
the  Vaal  River,  with  financial  results  which  are  not  as  a  rule 
very  satisfactory.  Although  the  diamonds  found  there  are 
inclined  to  be  small  and  of  not  very  frequent  occurence,  they 
are  generally  of  fine  colour. 

A  diamond  mine  appears  to  occupy  the  site  of  some  old 
volcanic  eruption,  during  which  a  mass  of  liquid  material  burst 
through  the  overlying  strata  on  its  way  towards  the  surface, 

248 


Diamonds.  249 

and,  on  cooling,  assumed  the  appearance  of  a  slaty-coloured 
hardened  earth,  known  technically  as  'blue  ground.'  This 
formation  does  not  appear  usually  to  have  reached  the 
surface,  at  which  it  is  generally  covered  by  a  bed  of '  yellow 
ground.'  The  'blue'  is  the  essentially  diamond-bearing 
deposit ;  although  there  is  a  certain  but  small  proportion  of 
diamonds  scattered  through  the  yellow  ground.  The  pretty 
translucent  stones  with  which  children  used  to  play  on  the 
veldt  now  possessed  by  the  De  Beers'  syndicate,  and  which,  on 
being  recognised  by  a  passing  traveller  as  diamonds,  gave  the 
first  hint  of  the  enormous  wealth  that  lay  beneath  the  surface, 
doubtless  came  from  yellow  ground.  When  a  main  shaft  of 
blue  ground  has  been  tapped,  there  appears  to  be  practically 
no  limit  to  its  depth.  The  increased  expense  due  to  the  con- 
tinued sinking  of  the  mine,  is  often  more  than  compensated 
for  by  the  proportionate  richness,  in  diamonds,  of  the '  blue,'  the 
further  it  lies  from  the  surface.  I  feel  that  I  must  omit  all 
detailed  mention  of  the  manner  in  which  the  diamonds  are 
extracted  from  their  matrix,  and  of  the  extraordinary  pre- 
cautions which  are  taken  to  prevent  the  stealing  of  these 
stones  ;  for  it  would  take  me  too  far  away  from  the  main 
subject  of  this  book. 

The  De  Beers  Company  have  obtained  control  not  only 
over  all  the  South  African  mines,  but  also  over  all  those  that 
are  worth  working  in  other  countries.  Finding  that  the  world 
will  spend  yearly  not  more  than  ^"4,000,000  sterling  on 
diamonds  for  himself  and  his  wife,  the  company  regulate  its 
output,  so,  that  without  seriously  depreciating  the  value  of 
these  precious  stones,  it  will  issue  just  enough  of  them  and  no 
more,  to  secure  the  £4,000,000.  The  output  necessary  to 
attain  this  object,  forms  only  a  small  part — probably  not  a 
twentieth — of  the  diamonds  that  it  would  be  possible  to  dig 
up  year  after  year.  Any  attempt  to  glut  this  narrowly  re- 
stricted market  would  not  only  fail  to  extract  more  money 
from  the  public,  but  would  almost  certainly  have  the  evil 
effect  of  rendering  these  stones  unfashionable  from  their 


250  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

cheapness.  Had  the  companies  which  the  De  Beers'  people 
'  bought  up/  continued  to  work  in  rivalry,  this  result  e'er  now 
would  have  come  to  pass,  and  diamonds  might,  perhaps,  have 
ceased  to  merit  the  name  of  '  precious  stones.'  I  may 
mention  that  a  stone  to  be  *  precious,'  must  be  rare,  beautiful, 
and  permanent  enough  in  its  nature  to  stand  wear.  With  the 
exception  of  the  Kimberley  and  Jagersfontein  mines,  all  the 
others  have  been  closed,  so  as  to  keep  down  the  super- 
abundant supply.  The  Kimberley  mine  is  remarkable  for  its 
extraordinary  richness ;  though  the  stones  extracted  from  it, 
are,  as  a  rule,  of  inferior  quality.  The  Jagersfontein  mine, 
though  not  nearly  as  productive  as  the  other,  turns  out 
diamonds  of  great  purity.  As  regards  quality,  we  may  divide 
diamonds  into  '  white '  stones,  '  off  colour '  stones,  and  '  fancy ' 
stones.  A  stone  to  be  *  white '  should  be  free  from  the  slight- 
est trace  of  yellow  (the  besetting  sin  of  these  minerals), 
brown,  red,  or  any  other  colour  except  blue,  of  which  a  faint 
shade  greatly  adds  to  its  value.  *  Off  colour '  stones  are  those 
which  are  slightly  though  manifestly  tinged  with  any  colour 
except  blue.  They  are  worth  comparatively  little,  even  when 
the  shade  is  perceptible  only  to  trained  eyes,  and  even  when 
the  diamond,  thus  discounted,  might  have  finer  lustre  than  an 
ordinary  white  stone.  Diamonds  which  are  decidedly  off 
colour  find  a  market  chiefly  among  the  native  princes  of 
India.  When,  however,  the  colour  is  deep  without  affecting 
the  lustre,  the  stone  is  called  a'  fancy  '  stone,  and  might  fetch, 
per  carat,  even  a  higher  price  than  the  most  beautiful  blue 
white  stone.  As  such  a  diamond  is  not  '  every  man's  money,' 
the  owner  of  one,  if  he  wished  to  sell  it,  might  have  to  wait  a 
long  time  before  he  got  a  customer.  The  commonest  off 
colour  and  fancy  stones  in  South  Africa,  are  yellow,  amber, 
brown,  and  reddish  brown.  Some  of  the  deep  yellow  ones 
look  very  well,  and  closely  resemble  yellow  rubies ;  but  are 
more  brilliant,  and  far  more  costly.  Deep  amber  is  a 
favourite  shade,  in  which  I  can  see  but  little  beauty.  I  met 
with  no  pure  red  diamonds  in  Kimberley.  As  far  as  I  know, 


Diamonds.  251 

the  only  blue  diamonds  of  fair  size  in  existence  are  the 
historic  Hope  Diamond,  and  one  which  is  supposed  to  be 
a  broken  -  off  portion  of  the  Hope.  Before  the  dis- 
covery of  diamonds  in  South  Africa,  the  value  of  a  diamond 
was  reckoned  to  increase  according  to  the  square  of  its 
weight.  Thus,  if  a  white  brilliant  of  one  carat  was  worth 
£8,  a  similar  one  of  two  carats  would  have  been  worth  £32 ; 
of  three  carats,  £>J2 ;  and  so  on.  This  enhanced  price  was 
due  to  the  extreme  rarity  of  large  stones  in  those  days. 
This  scarceness  disappeared  with  the  advent  of  South  African 
diamonds,  among  which  there  are  so  many  of  a  not  easily 
saleable  size,  that  the  big  ones  are  often  cut  into  two  or  more 
pieces,  so  that  they  may  be  sold  separately.  As  a  rule,  the 
public  do  not  care  to  buy  diamonds  of  a  greater  weight  than 
four  carats.  If  a  diamond  exceeds  that  limit,  it  will  cost  too 
much  and  will  be  too  obtrusive  in  appearance  for  ordinary 
people.  It  is  altogether  a  mistaken  idea  that  South  Africa 
does  not  produce  as  good  diamonds  as  ever  came  out  of 
Galconda  or  Brazil.  There  is  nothing  in  any  high-class 
white  cut  diamond  to  indicate  from  what  country  it  came. 
In  the  majority  of  cases,  an  expert  can  tell  not  alone  from 
what  country,  but  also  from  what  mine  an  uncut  stone  was 
produced.  I  may  remark  that  a  white  uncut  stone  looks  not 
much  unlike  a  lump  of  alum  which  has  been  subjected  to 
the  action  of  water. 

By  the  kindness  of  Captain  Wallace  I  had  while  at 
Kimberley  several  opportunities  of  visiting  the  De  Beers'  sort- 
ing-room, in  which  scores  of  thousands  of  pounds  worth  of 
uncut  diamonds  were  laid  out  on  separate  sheets  of  paper 
according  to  their  colour  and  other  peculiarities.  Their 
crystalline  form,  in  many  cases,  was  wonderfully  perfect,  and 
was  specially  interesting  to  a  mineralogist 


CHAPTER     XIX. 

South  African  Railways — Coaching  across  the  Veldt — Driving  Twelve  in 
Hand — Driver  and  Guard — Food  for  Horses — Oat  Hay — Temper  of 
South  African  Horses — South  African  Method  of  Horsebreaking — Horse- 
manship in  South  Africa  and  Australia — Tying  Horses  to  Post  in  the 
Streets — Knee  Haltering — The  Veldt. 

AS  the  journey  from  Kimberley  to  Johannesburg,  where 
I  had  arranged  to  go,  was  rough  and  costly,  I  thought 
it  best  to  leave  my  wife  at  Kimberley,  where  we  had  several 
pleasant  friends,  and  to  attack  the  Randt  alone.  After  a 
wearisome  journey  of  two  nights  and  a  day  in  a  most  un- 
comfortable train  service,  I  arrived  in  Kronstadt,  which  is  a 
small  town  in  the  Orange  Free  State,  and  had  then  to  travel 
twenty-four  hours  in  a  coach  before  arriving  at  Johannesburg, 
the  capital  of  the  gold  fields. 

The  way  in  which  the  railways,  a  Government  monopoly, 
are  managed  in   Cape  Colony  is   a   disgrace  to  a  civilised 

252 


South  African  Railways.  253 

country.  The  fact  that  the  amount  of  the  particular  fares 
are  not  printed,  as  they  are  in  England  and  elsewhere,  on 
the  tickets,  can  be  explained  only  on  the  supposition  that 
the  railway  authorities  make  this  strange  omission  for  the 
good-natured  purpose  of  enabling  their  ticket  clerks  to  get  a 
4  bit '  out  of  incautious  travellers.  The  habitues  of  these  lines 
of  course  know  the  proper  fares  or  can  readily  find  out  where 
the  list  is  displayed  ;  but  the  stranger  who  has  always  been 
accustomed  to  take  for  granted  that  he  has,  on  the  ticket  he 
receives,  a  record  of  the  amount  he  paid,  can  hardly  help 
being  swindled  the  first  time  he  trusts  to  the  honour  of  the 
Africander  ticket  clerk.  The  cost  of  the  fares  far  exceed  that 
of  any  other  country  in  which  I  have  travelled,  and  no  attempt 
is  made  to  cater  for  the  poorer  class  of  passengers.  Con- 
sequently, the  well-to-do  Kafirs  prefer,  as  a  rule,  to  walk  than 
to  submit  to  extortionate  charges.  I  may  point  out  that  in 
India,  the  people  of  which  are  extremely  poor,  there  is  an 
immensely  large  native  third-class  traffic  ;  for  the  railway 
companies  of  that  Empire,  by  putting  the  tariff  at  less  than 
a  farthing  a  mile,  make  railway  travelling  cheaper  even  for  the 
poorest  than  walking.  Except  when  starting  at  one  of  the 
main  termini  by  an  express  train,  the  separate  accommoda- 
tion for  ladies,  and  the  sleeping  arrangements  for  both  sexes 
are  very  inadequate.  Any  omission  made  at  these  principal 
places  can  seldom  if  ever  be  rectified  at  any  of  the  inter- 
mediate stations ;  for  the  officials  seem  to  consider  that  their 
sole  duty  is  to  blindly  carry  out  the  inflexible  orders  of  their 
superiors,  and  that  they  are  in  no  way  bound  to  study  the 
interests  of  their  real  employers,  the  travelling  public.  The 
restrictions  put  on  the  carrying  of  luggage  are  as  severe  as 
they  are  in  Germany,  and  the  charge  for  excess  of  luggage  is 
much  higher.  If  the  railway  authorities  were  taken  to  task 
on  the  foregoing  points,  they  would,  no  doubt,  plead  that  as 
the  number  of  their  passengers  are  small,  they  have  to  charge 
them  highly.  To  this  I  may  reply  that  by  doing  so  they 
adopt  the  most  effective  means  of  checking  any  increase  in 


254  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

the  number  of  their  patrons.  This  suicidal  policy  has  had 
the  effect  of  preventing  the  Africanders  from  forfeiting  their 
claim  to  be  considered  the  most  stay-at-home  people  in  the 
world. 

The  coaching  in  South  Africa  is  of  a  primitive  kind,  and 
would  not  commend  itself  to  old  Charlie  Ward,  or  even  to 
his  son  Frank.  Yet  for  all  that  it  admirably  accomplishes 
its  purpose.  There  are  no  roads  either  to  speak  of,  or  to  see. 
After  saying  that  the  country  is  an  open  one  and  not  fenced 
in,  I  have  praised  the  'going'  as  far  as  I  may  truthfully 
venture.  The  coach  is  of  the  old  American  backwoods  sort, 
is  hung  on  leather  springs,  and  is  capable  of  holding  twelve 
closely-packed  inside  passengers,  with  a  few  less  hampered 
ones  outside.  Having  to  be  very  strong  to  resist  the  terrible 
jolts  it  receives  on  its  cross-country  travels,  it  is  heavy, 
and  as  the  cattle  are  either  weedy  ponies,  or  small  mules, 
their  individual  deficiency  in  pulling  power  has  to  be  made 
up  by  an  increase  in  their  numbers.  Consequently,  a  team 
of  ten  or  a  dozen  has  to  do  the  work  of  four  or  six  ordinary 
horses.  These  animals  are  harnessed  two  by  two,  with  one 
pair  of  reins  for  the  leaders,  and  another  for  the  wheelers. 
The  intermediate  pairs  follow  the  leaders  and  do  not  require 
any  special  guidance.  The  man  who  holds  the  reins  is  an 
unconsidered  cypher.  The  driver,  who  is  the  ornamental 
man  of  the  show,  amuses  himself  with  a  light  fifteen  foot 
pole,  from  the  end  of  which  hangs  a  long  thong,  finished 
off  with  a  lash  of  gemsbok  raw  hide.  This  sportsman  prides 
himself  on  the  dexterity  with  which  he  can  manipulate  this 
funny-looking  whip,  and  has  more  tricky  ways  of  '  catching  ' 
and  '  double  thonging '  than  ever  entered  into  the  mind  of 
even  poor  Jim  Selby.  With  this  flail  he  can  reach  either  the 
near  or  off  leader,  and  can,  if  he  likes,  cut  '  chunks '  out  of 
any  of  his  team.  He  is,  however,  supposed  to  show  his 
skill  less  by  punishment,  than  by  describing  figures  in  the 
air  with  the  thong,  and  by  shrieking  in  a  peculiarly  terrifying 
manner  at  his  horses.  Besides  the  fifteen-footer,  he  carries 


Food  for  Horses.  255 

a  kind  of  magnified  dog-whip  for  the  special  benefit  of  the 
wheelers.  The  third  and  last  person  of  the  coaching  show 
is  the  guard,  whose  business  is  to  take  tips,  tell  the  passengers 
yarns,  and  induce  them  to  patronise  the  halting-place  shanties, 
at  which  he  is  on  the  free  list  for  food  and  drink. 

The  ponies,  or  horses,  if  I  may  dignify  them  by  that  term, 
are  admirable  workers  for  their  weight,  and  will  trot  along 
merrily  and  pull  gamely  up  hill  and  down  dale  over  bad 
ground,  a  stage  of  twelve  miles,  once,  and  sometimes  twice  a 
day.  Their  sole  food  is  Indian  corn,  oat  hay,  and  any  grass 
they  can  pick  up  on  the  veldt.  The  '  mealies '  are  given  in  a 
dry  state,  whole  or  crushed,  or  after  having  been  soaked  over 
night  in  water.  The  oat  hay,  or  'forage'  as  it  is  called, 
consists  of  oats  which  have  been  cut  before  the  grains  in  the 
ears  have  lost  all  their  milky  character,  and  which  have  been 
dried  in  the  sun  like  ordinary  hay.  If  the  ears  were  allowed 
to  ripen  more  than  I  have  stated,  the  grains  would  become 
so  much  loosened  that  they  would  fall  out  of  the  ears  on 
too  slight  provocation  to  bear  transit,  or  ordinary  handling. 
This  'forage'  is  an  excellent  food.  Although  I  have  used 
a  good  deal  of  it  with  horses  when  I  lived  in  Calcutta,  to 
which  city  it  is  often  brought  from  Australia,  where  it  is 
known  as  oat  hay,  in  steamers  that  are  loaded  with  horses, 
I  am  unable  to  decide  whether  or  not  it  would  be  a  good 
substitute  for  English  hay.  Anyhow,  it  is  a  valuable  adjunct 
or  change  to  a  horse's  food.  It  is  sometimes  used  in 
England  during  years  in  which  there  is  scarcity  of  ordinary 
hay. 

In  temper,  the  South  African  horses  more  nearly  resemble 
the  Barbs  I  met  at  Gibraltar  and  Malta  than  any  other  horses 
I  have  seen.  Both  these  breeds  are,  as  a  rule,  very  quiet,  spirit- 
less, though  good  slaves,  and  are  inclined  to  be  obstinate.  Their 
lack  of  *  life  '  is  no  doubt  due  to  the  fact  of  their  being  kept 
during  their  youth  in  a  state  of  semi-starvation.  The  cause 
of  the  tendency  to  be  sulky  I  attribute,  in  the  case  of  South 
Africans,  to  their  being  broken-in  at  a  comparatively  late 


256  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

period  of  life.  I  have  no  acquaintance  with  the  early  bring- 
ing-up  of  the  horses  of  Algeria  and  Morocco.  No  fact  in 
horsebreaking  is  better  established  than  that  the  longer  the 
inculcation  of  discipline  is  delayed,  the  more  stubborn  will  be 
the  horse.  It  is  just  the  same  with  a  child. 

The  way  in  which  horses  are  broken  to  saddle  in  South 
Africa  is  one  which  I  have  never  seen  practised  in  any  other 
country.  It  is  charmingly  simple  and  has  its  good  points  as 
well  as  its  bad  ones.  It  consists  of  tying  the  head  of  the 
neophyte  close  up  to  that  of  a  steady  horse  by  means  of  a  cord 
connecting  the  respective  headstalls  worn  by  these  animals. 
After  they  have  both  been  saddled  and  bridled,  the  '  school- 
master5 is  first  mounted,  and  then  another  man  gets  on  the 
young  one,  who  is  powerless  to  buck,  rear,  or  run  away,  on 
account  of  his  head  being  fixed.  Besides  this,  the  fact  of  his 
being  alongside  another  horse  gives  him  confidence,  and  no 
matter  how  wild  he  may  be,  he  will  learn  in  a  short  time  to 
carry  his  burden  and  regulate  his  pace  according  to  that  of 
his  companion.  As  he  settles  down  quietly  to  work,  the 
connecting  cord  may  be  gradually  loosened  out,  until  at  last 
it  can  be  taken  off  altogether.  This  is  a  capital  plan  if  one 
has  a  good  break  horse,  and  if  one  knows  no  better  way.  Its 
great  fault  is  its  tendency  to  make  a  horse  unwilling  to  go 
alone.  Of  course,  it  has  no  pretensions  to  giving  a  horse  a 
good  mouth. 

The  extreme  quietness  of  the  majority  of  South  African 
horses  is,  I  think,  due  to  the  fact  of  their  being  starved  on 
arid  pastures,  for  a  considerable  portion  of  each  year,  and  to 
the  non-stimulating  quality  and  quantity  of  the  food  given  to 
them  when  in  work. 

As  Africanders  are  '  broad  in  the  beam/  and  often  have  to 
remain  several  hours  on  horseback,  they  like  saddles  to  be 
particularly  wide  towards  the  cantle,  and  to  have  a  good  '  dip ' 
in  them.  So  long  as  the  saddle  is  comfortable,  they  don't 
trouble  themselves  about  its  weight.  As  they  do  not,  as  a 
rule,  study  the  finer  points  of  riding,  they  do  not  affect  the 


South  African  Horsemen.  257 

narrow-waisted  saddles  which  are  greatly  in  vogue  in 
Australia.  Their  saddles,  with  few  exceptions,  are  very 
clumsy  affairs  ;  but  they  serve  their  purpose.  South  Africa 
being  an  extremely  open  country,  little  attention  is  paid  to 
jumping.  As  the  young  men  connect  riding  chiefly  with 
shooting,  they  almost  all  ride  with  only  the  left  hand  on  the 
reins,  while  the  right  hand  is  supposed  to  be  occupied  with  a 
rifle.  The  use  of  a  sharp  curb  or  pelham  is  a  natural 
consequence  of  the  adoption  of  their  one-handed  form  of 
equitation.  With  the  object  of  being  able  to  carry  the  rifle 
comfortably,  the  most  of  the  saddle  horses  are  taught  to 
amble  or  *  tripple/  as  it  is  called.  Their  style  of  horsemanship 
and  taste  in  bridles  and  saddles  are  entirely  different  from 
those  of  the  Australasian  colonists,  who  regard  riding  as  the 
art  of  clearing  a  five-foot  post  and  rails  and  of  sticking  to  a 
buckjumper,  and  who,  consequently,  like  to  have  both  hands 
on  the  reins,  and  to  use  no  other  bit  but  a  snaffle.  I  can  only 
say  that  both  parties  are  right  from  their  own  very  different 
standpoints. 

Before  I  went  to  South  Africa,  Frank  Fillis  used  to  tell 
me  that  the  Africanders  were  wonderful  fellows  for  teaching  a 
horse  to  stand  quietly  in  any  required  spot,  by  taking  the 
reins  off  his  neck  and  putting  them  round  any  convenient  post, 
or  even  by  letting  them  hang  down  on  the  ground.  When 
I  heard  this,  I  vowed  that  if  I  ever  went  to  the  Cape,  I  would 
learn  how  to  teach  a  horse  this  valuable  habit.  Having 
arrived  there,  I  sought  instruction  on  this  point  from  the  best 
horsemen  I  could  find.  They  all  told  me  that  there  was  no 
teaching  required  ;  for  their  animals  are  naturally  so  quiet 
that  the  difficulty  is  not  to  make  them  stand  still,  but  to  go 
on.  When  a  man  rides  into  a  town  on  business  in  England, 
France,  Germany,  Australia,  or  other  similar  country,  and 
wants  to  dismount,  he  either  deposits  his  animal  in  a  stable, 
or  gets  it  held  by  one  of  the  unemployed  who  are  always 
ready  for  an  easy  and  well-paid  job ;  if  in  India,  China,  or 
Japan  he  brings  along  with  him  his  respective  syce,  mafoo,  or 

R 


258  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

bettoe  to  take  charge  of  the  horse  or  pony.  In  South  Africa 
he  troubles  himself  about  none  of  these  things  ;  but  simply 
gets  off,  draws  the  reins  over  the  animal's  head,  puts  them  on 
one  of  the  upright  posts  which  are  planted  in  the  ground  for 
that  purpose  in  front  of  every  store,  and  leaves  his  mount  to 
take  care  of  itself,  while  he  goes  off  to  transact  his  work  ; 
being  well  assured  that  no  matter  how  long  he  may  stay 
away,  he  will  find  it  in  the  same  spot  on  his  return. 

When  a  South  African  wants  to  turn  his  horse  out  on  the 
veldt  to  graze,  and  wishes  to  prevent  it  from  roaming  too  far 
away,  and  to  be  able  to  readily  catch  it,  he  usually  'knee 
halters '  it.  This  is  done  by  taking  the  leading  rein  (a  piece 
of  raw  hide  called  a  reim  is  employed  for  this  purpose)  of  the 
headstall  and  attaching  it,  at  the  required  length,  to  a  fore- 
leg, either  above  or  below  the  knee,  by  means  of  a  clove  hitch, 
and  then  fastening  the  loose  end  of  the  reim  to  the  headstall. 

By  the  term  veldt  is  meant  the  open  plain,  which  is  as 
familiar  a  feature  of  the  scenery  of  South  Africa,  as  the 
maidan  is  of  that  of  India.  The  veldt  is  singularly  free  from 
trees  or  even  shrubs,  and  one  may  go  for  hundreds  of  miles 
without  seeing  on  it  any  larger  form  of  plant  life  than  stunted 
grass  or  karoo ,  which  is  a  green-coloured  weed  that  grows  to 
about  a  foot  in  height.  The  veldt  is  not  safe  ground  to  ride 
over  at  speed  ;  as  it  is  full  of  holes  made  by  mercats  (ant  cats) 
and  ant  bears. 


PJwto.  by  M.  H.  Hayes. 


CHAPTER    XX. 


Arrival  at  the  Gold  Fields — Clubs  in  South  Africa — Johannesburg  :  its  Jews, 
Englishmen,  and  Boers — Types  of  John  Bull — A  Public  Performance 
under  Difficulties — A  Lady  riding  Buckjumpers — Performances  at  the 
Johannesburg  Circus — Bad  to  Mount — The  Farce  of  Horse  Taming 
Shows  in  England — How  to  make  a  Good  Impression — J.  R.  Couper, 
the  South  African  Champion— Wolff  Bendoff— *  The  Mates' '  Son— Mr 
Grey  Rattray — Eggs  Sixpence  Apiece — Dave  Moss  and  the  'Tape'— 
Johannesburg  'Sharps' — The  Ready  Reckoner  Story — Justice  to  'Nig- 
gers '  in  the  Transvaal — Vichy,  the  Winner  of  the  Johannesburg  Handi- 
cap— English  Horses  in  South  Africa. 

WEARY,  jolted  to  pieces,  and  with  a  pain  in  my  back 
which  had  made  me  wish  to  die,  I  arrived  one  Sun- 
day morning  at  Johannesburg  on  the  coach  that  had  carried 
the  mails  and  three  or  four  passengers  for  twenty-four  miser- 
able hours,  with  only  a  rest  of,  say,  ten  minutes  for  changing 
horses  about  every  two  hours.  After  dropping  down  from 
the  box  seat,  the  first  thing  I  did  was  to  recognise  a  passing 


260  Among  Men  and  Horses.  •, 

sportsmen  who  had  been  a  member  of  my  class  at  Malta  ; 
whereupon  we  simultaneously  exclaimed  :  '  Dear  me,  what  a 
small  world  this  is  ! '  My  friend  seeing  my  state  of  collapse, 
led  me  off  to  the  Randt  Club,  which  was  hard  by,  refreshed 
me  with  the  best,  and  got  me  made  an  honorary  member. 
The  men  of  the  better  sort  in  South  Africa  are  eminently 
clubable,  and  even  in  the  small  towns,  generally  manage  to 
form  a  pleasant  retreat  for  themselves  where  they  can  eat, 
drink,  read  the  papers,  and  play  billiards  without  being 
poisoned  or  fleeced.  Their  clubs  are  comfortable,  well 
managed,  and  afford  a  stranger  an  easy  means  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  members,  who,  like  all  South  Africans, 
are  only  too  glad  to  be  kind  and  hospitable  to  strangers  who 
can  give  a  '  good  account  of  themselves/  and  who  do  not  put 
on  '  side,'  which  was  the  stone  over  which  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill  stumbled  when  in  those  parts.  It  is  the  custom  in 
South  African  clubs  to  have  a  bar,  similar  to  those  in  public 
houses,  at  which  drinks  are  dispensed  to  the  members.  Such 
an  adjunct  to  a  club  in  England  or  India,  would  naturally 
render  the  place  liable  to  be  termed  a  '  pot  house ' ;  but  in 
South  Africa  the  case  is  very  different.  There,  men  who 
belong  to  clubs,  instead  of  being  more  or  less  idle  like  those 
in  the  two  countries  I  have  mentioned,  have  their  time  fully 
occupied,  and  appreciate  the  convenience  of  the  bar  system. 
Besides,  in  a  country  where  good  waiters  are  very  difficult  to 
be  found,  it  would  not  always  be  possible  to  procure  sufficient 
and  suitable  attendance  for  serving  liquor  only  in  the  various 
sitting-rooms.  When  South  African  society  has  assumed  a 
more  permanent  and  a  more  cultured  form  than  it  has  up  to 
the  present  attained,  and  when  its  ladies  have  increased  in 
number,  and  have  become  less  afraid  than  they  are  of  each 
other,  the  club  committee  men  will  see  the  advantage  of 
catering  for  the  amusement  of  the  members'  womankind  by, 
for  instance,  allowing  them  the  entrance  into  certain  club 
rooms  during  certain  hours  of  the  afternoon  or  evening,  hav- 
ing lawn  tennis  courts  at  which  they  might  play,  and  getting 


Johannesburg.  261 

up  periodical  dances.  Such  a  desirable  consummation,  out- 
rageously improbable  as  it  may  now  appear,  will  no  doubt 
come  to  pass  in  time. 

Leaving  the  Randt  Club  and  feeling  about  five  stone 
better  than  when  I  entered  it,  I  walked  down  the  principal 
street  in  the  direction  of  the  Central  Hotel,  where  I  had  sent 
on  my  luggage.  The  street  was  broad,  macadamised,  and 
had  good  masonry  houses  on  each  side.  Off  this  main 
thoroughfare,  there  was  only  one  or  two  metalled  roads,  with 
straggling  streets  of  ill-assorted  houses ;  some  being  preten- 
tious ;  others,  paltry.  Many  of  them  were  of  corrugated 
iron,  which  is  the  staple  material  of  which  South  African 
houses  are  constructed  up  country.  The  style  of  architecture 
and  the  method  in  which  the  bricks  and  mortar  had  been  put 
together,  denoted  that  the  buildings  had  been  erected  in  a 
hurry  and  under  difficulties  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
immediate  occupation.  Remembering  that  five  years  previ- 
ously Johannesburg  had  been  a  mere  miners'  canvas  camp, 
and  that  at  the  time  of  my  arrival  it  housed  60,000  people, 
my  wonder  was  not  that  it  was  lacking  in  many  of  the 
beauties  and  comforts  of  old-established  cities,  but  that  it 
was  such  a  flourishing  and  go-a-head  place  as  it  was.  The 
old  proverb  of  money  making  the  mare  go,  is  equally  applic- 
able to  towns.  As  a  site  for  a  city,  Johannesburg  has  no 
advantages.  It  is  situated  on  a  desert,  the  dust  of  which, 
when  the  wind  blows,  gets  into  the  lungs  of  the  unfortunate 
inhabitants  and  afHicts  them  with  various  forms  of  chest 
disease.  There  being  no  natural  drainage,  sanitation  has  to 
be  carried  on  by  the  '  pail  system/  with  the  consequence  of 
a  chronic  stench.  It  is  far  away  from  everywhere  else ; 
but  it  has  gold  in  vast  quantities  under  its  surface.  I  believe 
it  is  now  the  third  most  productive  gold  field  in  the  world. 
This  precious  metal  is  an  immense  advantage  in  stimulating 
the  growth  of  a  city ;  but  alone,  and  it  is  alone  in  this  case, 
it  can  never  make  of  Johannesburg  anything  more  than  a 
mining  camp  :  a  splendidly  flourishing  one,  no  doubt ;  but 


262  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

still  nothing  more  than    a   place  at  which  to  dig   up  gold, 
and  to  fight  for  its  possession. 

The  term  '  the  Randt/  which  is  often  applied  to  Johannes- 
burg, is  a  contraction  of  Wittwatters  randt  (the  edge  of  the 
white  waters),  which  was  the  name  given  in  former  days  to 
the  high  ground  which  fringes  a  few  small  lakes,  and  upon 
which  the  capital  of  the  Gold  Fields  now  stands.  Although 
Johannesburg  is  in  the  territory  of  the  South  African 
Republic,  it  is  essentially  an  English-speaking  city.  Writing 
from  the  impression  left  on  my  mind  during  a  residence  of 
about  six  weeks,  the  whole  of  which  time  I  had  unrivalled 
opportunities  for  getting  to  know  the  people  ;  I  would  say 
as  a  rough  guess  that  of  the  business  men,  four-tenths  are 
Jews  ;  three-tenths,  English  ;  two-tenths,  Germans  ;  and  one- 
tenth,  Americans  and  other  nationalities.  I  have  an  immense 
respect  for  the  Jews  as  a  nation,  and  number  among  them 
several  valued  friends.  Originally  they  were  a  pastoral  and 
warlike  nation,  whose  virtues  and  valour  have  been  recorded 
not  only  in  the  Bible  ;  but  also  by  Josephus  and  others  who 
were  in  no  way  prejudiced  in  their  favour.  While  suffering 
from  bitter  persecution  and  the  enactment  of  shamefully 
unjust  penal  laws,  many  of  them  have  risen  to  the  highest 
eminence  in  art,  science,  literature,  politics,  and  philanthropy. 
They  are  warm  friends  of  our  Government,  and  in  many  cases 
flatter  us  in  the  sincerest  possible  way,  by  trying  to  pass  as 
Christians.  Unfortunately,  Johannesburg  has  not  recruited 
her  stock  of  Jews  from  the  better  classes  of  that  ancient 
nation.  With  a  few  exceptions,  the  best  of  them  would  pass 
for  members  of  '  The  Den  of  Lions  '  in  Rathbone  Place  ;  and 
the  majority,  for  the  '  boys '  who  '  follow '  racing.  They  seem 
to  take  their  tone  from  their  chief  leader,  who  from  nothing 
has  risen  to  be  a  millionaire  many  times  over.  His  East 
End  co-religionists  worship  him  for  being  the  incarnation  of 
successful  cunning,  and  for  preferring  to  remain  one  of  them- 
selves, than  to  become  respected  and  honoured.  The  ex- 
ample of  a  man  whom  the  acquisition  of  immense  wealth 


Mr  Payne  Galway.  263 

has  failed  to  improve  in  manners,  education  and  taste,  is  in 
all  communities  a  public  misfortune. 

Among  the  English  residents,  there  are  several  good  sports- 
men, like  Mr  Payne  Galway  and  Mr  Buckridge,  who  play 
polo,  race,  and  are  fond  of  horses.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
the  Germans,  who  are  quite  English  in  this  respect.  It  is  an 
unfortunate  circumstance  that  there  is  in  our  language  no 
term  to  designate  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  Kingdom. 
That  of '  Britishers  '  will  not  do  ;  for  it  does  not  include  the 
Irish.  Without  any  disloyality  to  my  native  country,  I,  as  a 
travelled  Irishman,  see  no  impropriety  in  putting  them  all 
down  as  Englishmen,  when  out  of  Ireland,  where  such  a 
broad  generalisation  might  hurt  the  hypersensitive  feelings 
of  those  who  regard  life  only  from  one  standpoint.  I 
make  this  explanation  on  account  of  having  dubbed  Mr 
Galway  a  Sassenach.  The  mention  of  his  name  reminds  me 
that  when  dining  one  night  with  him  at  the  Randt  Club,  I 
had  a  striking  proof,  one  among  many,  of  the  smallness  of 
the  world.  As  we  sat  down,  he  told  me  that  he  had  just 
received  a  letter  from  his  brother,  who  is  a  tea  planter  in 
Ceylon,  telling  him  that  his  greatest  friend  had  broken  his 
neck  when  riding  one  of  his  horses  at  the  late  Colombo  Races. 
'  You  don't  mean  to  tell  me,'  I  said,  involuntarily  jumping  up, 
'  that  poor  Waller  is  dead  ?  '  Hearing  me  repeat  the  name 
of  his  brother's  dead  friend,  without  his  mentioning  it ;  Mr 
Galway  was  naturally  surprised,  and  asked  me  how  I  could 
have  guessed  it.  I  explained  that  both  Mr  Waller  and  his 
brother  were  friends  of  mine,  that  I  had  stayed  with  them 
when  in  Ceylon,  and  that  I  had  seen  a  good  deal  of  Mr  Waller, 
who  was  a  fine  gentleman  rider,  and  who  always  rode  for  Mr 
Galway's  brother. 

Mr  Buckridge,  who  is  a  Devonshire  man,  is  a  type  of  John 
Bull  for  which  I  have  a  great  respect ;  although  nature  has 
built  me  on  altogether  different  lines.  He  is  as  English  in 
his  speech,  manner  and  style,  as  if  he  had  never  left  his 
native  land,  whose  ways  and  institutions  are  perfection  in  his 


264  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

eyes.  He  likes  his  horse  appointments  to  be  as  smart  as 
Wilton,  Merry  or  Soutar  can  turn  them  out.  His  riding 
boots  would  be  a  credit  to  Peal  ;  and  his  breeches,  to  Tautz. 
The  rest  of  his  attire  is  just  what  he  would  wear  among  his 
own  good  set  at  home.  As  South  Africans  do  not  particu- 
larly affect  collars  and  ties,  or  the  brushing  of  boots  and 
clothes,  and,  as  a  rule,  are  content  to  rely  on  the  local  hand- 
me-down  man  for  their  wearing  apparel ;  they  are  inclined  to 
resent  any  approach  to  '  smartness,'  which  word  I  use  here  in 
its  army,  and  not  in  its  society  meaning.  Though  I  am 
now  '  slack '  enough,  goodness  knows,  I  have  very  kindly 
memories  of  the  days  when  I,  too,  liked  to  be  as  *  smart'  as 
the  best  of  them. 

In  Johannesburg  there  was  another  gentleman  who  be- 
longed to  the  same  John  Bull  type  as  Mr  Buckridge,  but  was 
not,  like  him,  a  good  business  man.  His  ideas  were  solely 
centered  on  horses,  hunting  and  chasing.  He  was  a  fine 
horseman,  and  would  ride  any  *  chancy '  brute  sooner  than  sit 
down  and  look  on  while  a  cross-country  event  was  being 
decided.  He  would  live  on  dry  bread  and  water,  and 
sleep  on  any  miserable  '  shake-down,'  so  long  as  he  could  be 
near  a  horse  or  a  racecourse.  He  cared  nothing  for  gambl- 
ing ;  but  everything  for  sport.  Through  all  his  bad  luck  and 
misery  in  his  exile,  he  was  buoyed  up  with  the  hope,  which 
never  left  him,  that  one  day  he  would  ride  the  winner  of  the 
Liverpool  Grand  National  :  he  could  then  die  happy.  I  saw 
him  at  the  Johannesburg  Races  riding  in  a  chase,  with  his 
left  arm  bound  tighly  to  his  side  on  account  of  a  recently 
fractured  collar  bone.  Though  his  horse  had  not  a  hundred 
to  one  chance,  and  was  but  an  indifferent  jumper,  he  rode 
him  straight  and  well,  all  for  sport ;  for  proud  of  the  name  of 
G.  R.,  he  would  not  get  even  the  fee  of  a  losing  mount,  which 
would  have  come  in  very  handy  to  him  at  that  time.  As  he 
was  cantering  down  to  the  post,  I  took  off  my  hat  to  him  with 
deep  respect,  though  his  back  was  turned  to  me,  and  he  was 
far  away  from  where  I  was  standing. 


The  Boers.  265 

The  Dutch  are  the  nominal  rulers  of  the  place ;  but  they 
don't  make  much  show  of  authority.  The  Boers  come  in 
to  market  with  their  spans  of  twelve  to  twenty  oxen  (see  page 
279).  Having  done  their  business  quietly  and  inoffensively, 
they  trek  away  home.  The  Transvaal  Government  appear  dis- 
inclined to  meddle  with  the  turbulent  foreign  crowd  in  their 
midst.  There  are  several  honourable  men  among  the  Dutch 
officials  ;  but  a  large  number,  high  and  low,  of  them  get 
'  squared '  ;  a  fact  which  the  existence  of  the  iniquitous 
system  of  '  concessions  J  amply  proves.  No  wonder  that  the 
Transvaalers  view  with  dismay  the  increase  in  size  of 
Johannesburg  ;  for  they  see  that  in  the  near  future  they  will 
have  to  choose  between  allowing  the  foreigners  a  vote  in 
the  management  of  their  country,  or  of  assembling  their 
bullock  carts  and  treking  further  afield.  We  have  harried 
them  out  of  Cape  Colony  and  out  of  Natal.  Having  beaten 
us  in  fair  fight  when  we  wanted  to  worry  them  in  the  Trans- 
vaal, it  seems  hard  lines  that  we  should  now  attack  them  in 
a  manner  they  are  powerless  to  resist.  Their  quarrel  with 
us  has  always  been  about  the  treatment  of  the  black  man. 
We  claim  for  him  equal  rights  with  the  white  man.  The 
Boers  deny  the  justness  of  this  claim,  and  sooner  than  admit 
it,  they  would  fight,  and  if  beaten,  would  prefer  to  clear  out  of 
the  entire  country,  than  submit  to  our  dictation  on  that  point. 
As  Sir  Roger  de  Coverley  used  to  say :  there  is  a  good  deal 
to  be  said  on  both  sides. 

I  occupied  the  first  week  of  my  stay  in  Johannesburg  with 
getting  to  know,  on  the  polo  ground,  in  the  Stock  Exchange, 
and  at  the  club,  all  the  good  sportsmen  in  the  place.  I  found 
that  they  had  heard  from  the  newspapers  about  our  work  at 
Kimberley  and  elsewhere,  and  that  they  were  anxious  to  see 
us  perform  ;  but  there  did  not  appear  much  chance  of  getting 
together  a  big  class,  because  all  those  who  were  interested  in 
horses  had  their  time  fully  occupied  with  a  fresh  boom  that 
had  just  then  sprung  up  among  New  Primroses,  Jumpers, 
Robinsons  and  other  mines.  All  my  friends  advised  me  to 


266  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

relinquish  the  idea  of  a  class,  and  to  give  either  at  the  Circus 
or  in  the  Wanderers'  Ground  a  public  performance,  to  which, 
they  said,  everyone  would  come.  This  was  a  very  embar- 
rassing dilemma  in  which  I  found  myself.  A  class  was 
obviously  out  of  the  question,  and  a  public  performance 
presented  both  dangers  and  difficulties.  As  horses  are  not 
bred  around  Johannesburg,  I  did  no  know  where  to  procure 
subjects,  and  even  if  I  got  likely  ones,  I  could  not  tell  if  they 
would  *  play  up '  on  the  opening  night.  Giving  a  show  of  this 
kind  on  the  Gold  Fields  was  a  very  different  thing  to  one  in 
London  ;  for  instead  of  a  lot  of  law-abiding  Cockneys  who 
knew  nothing  about  horses,  I  would  have  to  face  an  expert 
audience,  largely  composed  of  a  rough  element  that  would 
stand  no  trifling.  Had  I  had  a  circus,  a  theatrical  troupe,  a 
collection  of  performing  dogs,  or  any  show,  the  performers 
in  which  I  could  have  been  certain  would  do  their  '  turns  ' 
properly,  my  mind  would  have  been  at  rest  ;  but .  I  had  to 
rely  on  actors  who  would  give  me  no  guarantee  that  they 
would  play  their  parts  in  the  required  manner.  I  confided 
my  trouble  to  Mr  Bonamicci,  who  had  formerly  been  Frank 
Fillis's  manager.  I  found  him  intelligent,  sympathetic,  cap- 
able, resourceful,  and  trustworthy  in  every  way.  We  scoured 
the  city  and  came  across  a  stage-coach  horse  which  no  one 
up  to  then  had  been  able  to  ride,  on  account  of  his  being  a 
very  bad  buckjumper.  The  owner,  Mr  Donaldson,  very 
kindly  promised  to  lend  me  this  animal  and  another  that  was 
equally  bad,  so  I  was  told.  Mr  Butters,  who  is  one  of  the 
chief  men  in  the  Robinson  mine,  and  is  an  American  gentle- 
man of  the  very  best  type,  offered  to  produce  a  vicious 
mule  which  was  warranted  to  eat  up  anyone  that  went  near 
him.  After  wiring  off  to  my  wife  at  Kimberley  to  come  in 
hot  haste  to  Johannesburg,  I  engaged  the  Athletic  Grounds 
of  the  Wanderers'  Club,  which  were  to  be  lighted  with  elec- 
tricity, and  having  fixed  the  evening,  I  left  Bonamicci  to  fill 
up  the  newspapers  with  advertisements  of  the  most  thrilling 
kind,  to  get  editorial  puffs  under'  local  intelligence,'  to  placard 


An  Exciting  Performance.  267 

the  town,  and  to  distribute  hand-bills  broadcast.  My  wife 
arrived  ;  the  evening  came  to  pass ;  I  had  the  animals  all 
ready  near  the  ring ;  the  electric  light  was  on,  and  three 
turnstiles  were  opened  for  admission  ;  but  they  proved  so 
inadequate  to  clear  the  way  in  front  of  the  ever-increasing 
crowd  which  sought  admittance,  that  half  an  hour  before  the 
performance  was  advertised  to  take  place,  the  gates  yielded 
to  the  pressure  from  behind,  and  thousands  entered  on  the 
free  list.  This  was  an  unforeseen  accident  for  which  excess  of 
patronage  alone  was  to  blame.  As  the  crowd  invaded  the 
ring,  October  and  I  hurried  through  our  work  as  fast  as  we 
could.  When  the  throng  of  miners,  Boers,  roughs  and  gentle- 
men, all  mixed  up  together  in  a  tangled  mass,  saw  a  pretty, 
slight,  young  woman  of  middle  height  and  faultlessly  attired 
in  riding  costume,  step  into  the  ring  and  walk  up  to  the  horse 
that  no  one  had  been  able  to  ride,  they  began  cheering  and 
yelling  as  if  they  were  all  mad.  Some  shouted  out  words  of 
encouragement ;  others,  entreaties  to  leave  the  horse  alone  ; 
while  the  Boers  loudly  encouraged  the  animal  to  do  his  best 
against  the  accursed  *  Rednecks,'  as  they  are  pleased  to  call  the 
English.  In  the  midst  of  this  row,  my  wife  was  hoisted  into 
the  saddle,  which  she  had  hardly  touched,  before  the  horse 
began  to  buck  and  plunge  as  if  he  were  possessed  with  an 
evil  spirit.  When  he  was  tired  of  this  amusement  I  gave 
him  a  lesson  in  jumping,  and  then  my  wife  rode  him 
quietly  about  the  place  and  made  him  jump  hurdles  for 
the  first  time  in  his  life.  Her  fine  horsemanship,  the  like 
of  which  had  never  before  been  seen  in  South  Africa,  created 
a  great  sensation.  We  then  did  a  lot  of  interesting  work 
with  some  other  horses  and  the  mule,  and  finished  a  very 
trying  evening  in  a  satisfactory  manner.  Despite  the  giv- 
ing way  of  the  gates,  we  did  not  do  very  badly  ;  for  we 
took  ;£i73,  out  of  which  we  had  about  £14.0  profit.  Had  the 
gates  stood  firm  the  sum  might  have  run  into  four  figures. 

As  the  majority  of  the  people  who  had  attended  the  show 
had  been  unable,  owing  to  the  crowd  and  row,  to  see  the  per- 


268  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

formance,  I  engaged  the  Circus  which  Fillis  had  built,  and 
gave  in  it  a  couple  of  breaking  exhibitions,  which  were  largely 
attended,  as  we  were  given  some  very  violent  horses  to  handle. 

I  may  explain  that  after  one  of  these  horses  had  been 
tried  by  October  or  any  volunteer,  I  used  to  ask  the  audience 
if  the  animal  was  bad  enough  to  take  in  hand.  If  the  answer 
was  in  the  affirmative,  I  did  the  breaking,  and  my  wife  the 
riding.  But  if,  on  account  of  the  horse  failing  to  buck,  or  to 
resist  all  efforts  to  mount  him,  the  cry  was :  '  Quiet  horse  ; 
let  us  have  another/  I  sent  him  out  of  the  ring  and  subjected 
the  next  one  to  a  similar  test.  The  refusal  of  the  audience 
to  believe  in  the  vicious  propensities  of  these  animals  was  a 
bitter  disappointment  to  several  of  their  respective  owners, 
who,  both  for  the  reward  of  £2  which  I  had  advertised  for 
the  production  of  each  buckjumper  and  for  the  '  swagger '  of 
bringing  a  horse  which  no  one  could  ride,  had  fetched  their 
animals  from  long  distances  to  our  show.  I  need  hardly 
say,  that  I  allowed  no  injustice  to  be  done,  as  far  as  the 
405.  were  concerned.  This  policy  of  offering  rewards  for 
vicious  horses  and  of  allowing  our  audience  to  choose  the 
animals  they  deemed  most  suitable  to  test  our  powers,  gained 
us  hosts  of  friends  ;  but  soon  exhausted  the  supply  of  wild 
horses.  It  was,  however,  the  only  way  to  render  a  horse- 
breaking  performance  a  success  as  a  public  show.  Deprived 
of  this  excitement,  it  would  be  as  thin  and  flat  to  the  multi- 
tude, as  would  be  a  lecture  on  chemistry  without  plenty  of 
interesting  experiments.  To  show  that  we  were  appreciated, 
I  may  mention  that  after  we  had  stopped  exhibiting  in  public 
from  want  of  raw  material  to  work  on,  we  made  ;£ioo  with  a 
horsebreaking  class  for  gentlemen,  and  a  riding  class  for 
ladies.  Remembering  these  things  and  the  kind  of  men  and 
horses  we  met  in  the  Transvaal,  it  makes  me  laugh  to  see  so- 
called  horse  tamers  performing  in  England,  night  after  night, 
for  weeks  together,  on  the  same  old  cab  horse. 

Having  had  numbers  of  terribly  bad  shows  foisted  on 
them,  the  South  African  public  are,  as  I  have  already  said, 


Couper,  The  South  African  Champion.         269 

coy  of  strangers  ;  but  are  very  generous  with  their  patronage, 
when  they  get  a  proof  that  it  will  not  be  abused.  They  are 
few  in  number  and  are  scattered  over  an  immense  extent  of 
country.  Consequently,  it  does  not  pay  to  tour  through  that 
country  with  a  large  company.  Frank  Fillis  found  out  this 
to  his  cost.  He  is  a  man  of  very  big  ideas,  and  is  but  little 
inclined  to  count  the  cost,  if  he  thinks  he  can  strengthen  his 
programme.  He  left  South  Africa  with  his  circus  owing 
£16,000,  and  bearing  the  good  wishes  of  his  creditors.  Their 
confidence  was  not  misplaced  ;  for  before  their  first  season  in 
India  was  finished,  he  had  remitted  to  South  Africa  the  whole 
amount  of  his  debt. 

I  had,  while  at  Johannesburg,  a  very  helpful  friend  in  Mr 
George  Fotheringhame,  who  is  a  Scotchman,  and  was  then  a 
livery  stable  keeper  and  horsebreaker  on  the  Randt.  I  have 
heard  that  he  has  since  gone  to  Mashonaland.  He,  like  the 
large  majority  of  the  Colonists  and  Boers  who  attended  my 
classes,  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  work  and  could  never  see 
enough  of  it.  He  is  a  manly,  honest  fellow,  and  is  one  of  the 
many  fine  horsebreakers  I  have  left  behind  in  South  Africa. 
He  was  the  great  friend  and  second  of  Couper,  the  South 
African  champion,  who  is  a  quiet,  well-bred  Scotch  gentleman, 
about  5  feet  8  inches  high,  and  about  10  st  7  Ibs.  when  'fit' 
He  had  gone  out  to  the  Cape  as  a  lad  with  the  love  of  adven- 
ture and  travel  strong  in  him.  Finding  that  education  availed 
nothing  there  and  knowing  no  trade,  he  conceived  the  happy 
idea  of  teaching  boxing,  which  he  had  learned  in  Edinburgh 
from  old  Charlie  Ball.  He  is  a  natural  fighter,  '  good  general,' 
and  has  indomitable  pluck  and  the  capacity  for  taking  '  pun- 
ishment' His  first  battle  of  any  consequence  was  for  the 
South  African  championship  against  'The  Lady's  Pet,'  a 
West  Indian  negro,  who,  though  about  twice  the  size  of  his 
Scotch  antagonist,  was  out  of  condition  and  past  his  prime. 
Couper  won  this  fight  without  a  mark.  After  that  he  had  a 
good  time  for  some  years,  during  which  he  was  patronised  by 
Mr  Barney  Barnato,  who  is  an  ardent  lover  of  the  P.R.,  and 


270  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

was  a  clever  exponent  of  the  noble  art  in  his  younger  days. 
For  some  reason  or  the  other,  a  coolness  sprung  up  between 
the  two,  and  to  pay  the  Scotchman  out,  the  Jew  imported 
his  co-religionist,  Wolf  Bendoff,  who  was  a  good  second- 
class  man  in  England.  The  Johannesburg  Hebrews  thought 
that  their  representative  had  a  nice,  easy  job  against  an 
antagonist  whom  they  regarded  merely  as  a  good  amateur. 
Couper  being  a  firm  believer  in  hard  work  as  the  best  means 
of  getting  into  condition,  kept  going  his  25  to  30  miles  day 
after  day,  and  stepped  into  the  ring  full  of  muscle,  clear  in  wind, 
and  brimful  of  pluck  and  vitality.  The  Jew  despising  his 
enemy,  took  things  easy.  In  the  first  few  rounds,  Bendoff 
hit  his  man  pretty  freely  ;  but  his  blows,  which  were  somewhat 
lacking  in  '  steam,'  made  little  impression  on  his  opponent. 
As  soon  as  he  began  to  get  a  little  slow  from  fatigue,  Couper, 
who  is  a  terribly  hard  hitter,  knocked  his  man  about  so 
vigorously  that  Bendoff  soon  gave  up  the  fight.  I  believe 
that  on  the  day  of  this  battle  Couper  was  a  better  man  than 
we  have  had  in  England  for  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years  ;  I 
mean  in  the  c  old  style/  and  not  at  glove-fighting,  for  which 
he  was  too  light.  My  opinion  of  Couper's  excellence  is  no 
doubt  worthless,  and  would  not  be  recorded  here,  did  it  not 
coincide  with  the  estimate  formed  by  that  admirable  judge, 
Bat  Mullins,  after  he  had  sparred  with  Couper,  who  used  to 
practise  with  Bat  when  he  was  home  from  South  Africa. 
Couper  might  have  retired  with  £10,000  or  £12,000;  but  he 
lost  the  most  of  his  money  speculating  in  mining  shares  ;  his 
chest  became  permanently  weakened  by  the  irritating  dust  of 
Johannesburg ;  and  he  had  a  run  of  particularly  bad  luck  in 
other  respects.  Out  of  the  ring,  as  well  as  in  in  it,  he  took  his 
punishment  like  the  brave,  honest  fellow  that  he  is.  I  may 
mention  that  although  he  was  a  professional  prize  fighter,  he  has 
always  been  warmly  welcomed  as  a  guest  at  the  Randt  Club,  and 
at  all  other  places  where  gentlemen  congregate  at  Johannes- 
burg. Not  long  ago  he  published  a  novel,  which  shows  a 
great  deal  of  literary  ability,  and  is  specially  interesting  to 


Mr  Grey  Rat  tray.  271 

those  who  are  acquainted  with   the  persons  and  scenes  in 
South  Africa  described  by  Couper. 

While  at  Johannesburg,  I  met   on  different   occasions  a 
nice  young  fellow,  a  Mr  Astley,  who  is  a  son  of  Sir  John, 
and   who  was   in   the   Barnato   office.     I   was   sorry  to   see 
him  there ;   for  I  thought  he  was  as  much  out  of  place,  as 
his  father  had  been  among  the  Hurst  Park  financiers,  who, 
after  utilising  his  name  to  the  utmost,  '  shunted '  their  bene- 
factor.    A  man  of  whom  I  saw  a  great  deal  and  liked,  was 
Mr  Grey  Rattray,  who,  though  a  kind-hearted   and  honest 
fellow,  has  the  strange  fancy  of  wishing  people  to  consider 
him    unscrupulously  sharp.     He   is    a   bold    speculator,  and 
is   singularly  clear-headed,  even  for   a   Scotchman.     Speak- 
ing to  him  one  day  about  the  high  cost  of  living  at  Johan- 
nesburg,  I  foolishly  remarked    that   it   was  monstrous   that 
eggs   should   cost   there  sixpence  apiece.      '  If/   replied   he, 
'  I  learned  that  there  was  a  country  in  which  eggs  sold  for 
a  guinea  each,  I'd  pack  up, my  portmanteau  and  go   there 
straight   away.'     From   this  accurate  view  of  life  taken   by 
him,  I    learned   to   estimate  at   their  true  value  the  advan- 
tages offered  to  capable  men  by  South  Africa,   in   the  up- 
country  parts  of  which  the  coin  of  least  value   is  a   three- 
penny bit ;  and  the  lowest  price  paid,  and  paid  willingly,  by 
the  poorest  working  man  for  a  shave,  is  sixpence. 

There  is  a  large  number  of  bookmakers,  chiefly  Jews,  at 
Johannesburg.  They  are  a  pleasant  lot  of  fellows  out  of 
whom  a  good  deal  of  fun,  if  not  money,  can  be  extracted. 
One  of  these  gentlemen,  probably,  as  a  delicate  compliment 
to  Lady  Loch,  who  is  a  sister  of  the  late  Lord  Lytton,  called 
himself  by  that  name,  under  the  idea  that  it  was  the  English 
equivalent  of  his  own,  Lichtenstadt  (Light  town).  Dave 
Moss,  another  of  the  Randt  fraternity,  was  a  man  for  whom 
I  had  much  sympathy.  Instead  of  spending  his  spare  time 
in  the  Beaufort  or  Albert  (he  never  aspired  quite  so  high 
as  the  Victoria),  he  was  eating  his  heart  out  on  the  Gold 
Fields,  and  all  on  account  of  not  having  been  able  to  keep 


272  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

his  own  counsel.  Those  of  my  readers  who  are  old  enough 
to  remember  the  introduction  of  the  'tape,'  can  no  doubt 
call  to  mind  many  occasions  on  which,  instead  of  an  intel- 
ligible row  of  words  being  presented  on  the  long  and  narrow 
strip  of  paper,  the  letters  and  figures  came  up  in  a  seemingly 
hopeless  state  of  confusion.  While  punters  at  gambling  clubs 
were  eagerly  waiting  for  the  result  of  a  race,  such  a  joke  on 
the  part  of  the  machine,  was  taken  by  them  in  anything  but 
good  part,  and  the  interruption  instead  of  being  hailed  as 
a  respite  from  the  labour  of  betting,  always  acted  as  a  stimul- 
ant, until  the  tape  had  corrected  itself  and  had  repeated 
its  lesson  correctly.  One  day  when  in  London,  Dave  Moss 
happened  to  look  at  the  jumbled  mess  which  the  tape  dis- 
closed at  that  moment.  He  continued  gazing  on  it,  until  at 
last,  by  a  marvellous  inspiration  he  saw  how  to  make  sense 
out  of  the  confusion.  Like  unto  one  of  his  own  prophets  in 
ancient  days,  the  spirit  of  inspiration  waxed  so  strong  in 
him  that  he  explained  the  riddle  unto  the  people.  And 
then  he  went  to  his  tent  or  his  apartments  and  cursed  him- 
self for  having  been  a  fool  for  teaching  his  brethren  to  read 
riddles  set  them  by  machines,  instead  of  backing  the  winner 
each  time  to  a  certainty,  without  anyone  else  being  the  wiser. 
The  inhabitants  of  Johannesburg  are  proud  of  the  sharp- 
ness of  their  'boys,'  and  tell  the  visitor  wonderful  tales  of 
these  practitioners  cheating  the  Boers  (the  Dutch  farmer  is 
the  recognised  victim)  at  the  three-card  trick,  faro,  and  other 
games  of  skill.  I  really  must  warn  those  of  my  readers  who 
intend  to  go  to  South  Africa,  to  be  prepared  for  the  ready 
reckoner  story,  which  the  new-comer  is  doomed  to  hear  from 
ten  to  a  hundred  times  a  day,  according  to  the  company  he 
frequents.  It  runs  thus  :  A  Jew  (they  say  it  was  Ikey  Son- 
nenberg;  but  in  this  case  I  think  the  vox  populi  is  a  lying 
spirit ;  for  my  Vryburg  friend  is  incapable  of  a  shabby  trick), 
having  concluded  the  purchase  of  a  number  of  articles — 
bullocks,  sheep,  bags  of  corn,  or  it  does  not  matter  what — 
from  a  Boer,  made  up  the  account  greatly  in  his  own  favour, 


The  Ready  Reckoner  Story.  273 

paid  the  farmer  and  dismissed  him.  The  Boer  on  his  way 
home,  thinking  he  had  been  defrauded,  worked  out  the  sum 
according  to  his  Dutch  almanack  in  which  a  ready  reckoner 
is  always  included.  Finding  that  the  total  was  a  good  deal 
more  than  the  amount  he  had  received,  the  yokel  retraced 
his  steps  and  demanded  the  difference.  The  Jew  on  hearing 
this  claim,  asked  for  its  explanation.  When  he  was  shown 
the  ready  reckoner,  he  took  up  the  almanack,  and  after 
inspecting  its  title-page,  handed  it  back  to'  its  owner  with 
the  contemptuous  remark  that  as  it  had  been  written  for  the 
previous  year,  it  did  not  hold  good  for  the  present  one,  and 
that  consequently  its  ready  reckoner  did  not  apply  to  the 
case  in  point.  The  Boer  thereupon  acknowledged  the  justice 
of  the  plea  and  departed.  If  only  a  tenth  of  these  stories  are 
true,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  Boers  hate  the  English,  among 
whom  they  include  all  English-speaking  Jews. 

People  in  England  pride  themselves  on  the  love  which 
they  feel  for  their  black  brethren,  and  are  willing  to  let  the 
blood  of  their  officers  and  soldiers  be  shed  in  maintaining 
equality  between  the  respective  descendants  of  Shem  and 
Ham.  I  admire  the  sentiment,  although  my  experience  has 
been  that  Englishmen  abroad  do  not  treat  black  men  any 
better  than  do  other  nations  ;  the  Boers,  for  instance.  As  a 
case  in  point,  I  may  mention  that  one  afternoon  while  we 
were  staying  at  Johannesburg,  my  wife,  who  was  in  the  hotel, 
was  informed  by  one  of  the  Kafir  servants  that  some  people 
were  beating  October  in  the  backyard  of  the  building.  Hear- 
ing this,  she  rushed  to  the  spot,  and  found  our  Basuto  boy 
struggling  with  a  constable  and  three  or  four  other  white  men 
who  were  vainly  trying  to  drag  him  off  to  the  police  station. 
She  being  a  law-abiding  Englishwoman,  though  knowing 
nothing  about  the  cause  of  the  row,  called  out  to  October  to 
go  quietly  with  the  constable,  which  he  instantly  did.  She 
then  drove  off  in  hot  haste  to  fetch  me  from  the  circus,  where 
I  was  breaking-in  a  horse,  and  we  went  off  to  the  police 
station  together.  Our  first  action  was  to  deposit  the  neces- 

S 


274  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

sary  amount  of  bail,  and  we  received  our  Kafir  with  a  broad 
grin  and  several  cuts  and  bruises  on  his  good-tempered  face. 
The  constable,  whom  we  met  on  the  road,  told  us  that  an 
Englishman    and  a   Jew  had   given   October  in    charge   for 
having  assaulted  them  and  for  having  been  drunk.     He  said 
that,  in  his  opinion,  the  Basuto  had  not  the  slightest  appear- 
ance of  being  intoxicated,  and  that  he  had  seen  nothing  of 
the  alleged  assault.     In  fact,  he  was  so  sympathetic  that  I 
remarked  it  was' a  hot  day,  and  gave  him  a  couple  of  shillings 
for  the  quenching  of  his  thirst.     Although  I  intended  to  '  re- 
member '  him  after  the  case  had  been  settled,  I  did  not  think 
it  safe  to  give  him  more  than  a  florin,  lest  he  might  '  round  ' 
on  me  and  say  that  I  had  tried  to  '  square '  him.     My  wife 
and  I  then  investigated  the  matter  and  found  that  the  English- 
man and  the  Jew  while  riding  past  the  backyard  of  the  hotel, 
had  gone  close  to  the  spot  where  October  and  one  of  the 
hotel  servants  were  beating  a  carpet.     In  the  usual  hectoring 
style,  the  '  damned  niggers '  were  ordered  to  clear  out,  and  to 
assist  them  in  that  movement,  the  Englishman  struck  October 
with  the  hunting  whip  which  he  was  carrying  in  his  hand. 
The  fact  of  October,  in  order  to  parry  the  blow,  putting  up 
the  light  cane  with  which  he  had  been  beating  the  carpet, 
enraged  the  Englishman  so, much,  that  he  got  off  his  horse,  and 
clubbing  his  heavy  hunting  whip,  dealt  the  Kafir  several  savage 
blows  about  the  head  and  face  with  the  butt  end.     October, 
who  was  a  real  fighter,  rushed  at  his  man  (a  big,  powerful 
one),  knocked  him  down  and  would  have  killed  him.  if  some 
white  men  who  were  near  had  not  pulled  him  off;  while  the 
Jew  kept  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  scrimmage,  and  con- 
tented himself  with  using  bad  language.     Having  fetched  a 
policeman,  and  laid  a  false  charge  of  assault  and  drunkenness 
against  October,  the  two  gentlemen  went  away.     Later  on,  I 
met  them  at  the  hotel.     The  Englishman  acknowledged  that 
he  had  struck  October  in  the  first  instance,  and  expressed  his 
regret  that  he  did  not  know  that  the  *  boy '  was  my  servant  ; 
for  had  he  been  aware  of  this,  he  would  not  have  chastised 


Justice  to  a  Black  Man.  275 

him  for  want  of  alacrity  in  obeying  the  order  to  clear  out  of 
the  road.     He  said,  however,  that  he  intended  to  get  October 
severely  punished  for  having  dared  to  strike  him.     I  pointed 
out  that  as  he  was  the  aggressor,  he  could  not  blame  the 
Kafir  for  retaliating.     To  this  he  replied  that  it  is  an  un- 
pardonable offence  for  a  '  nigger '  to  return  the  blow  of  a 
white  man.     I  urged  that  Couper  had  fought  '  The  Ladies' 
Pet,'  and  that  Couper  was  as  good  a  gentleman  as  he  was. 
He  answered  that  *  The   Ladies'   Pet '  was  a   West  Indian 
*  nigger '  and  not  a  Kafir,  who  could  be  admitted  to  no  terms 
of  equality  with  white  men  in  South  Africa.     The  fat  little 
Jew,  being  an  arrant  coward,  was    loud    in    the   threats    of 
vengeance  which  he  uttered  against  any  *  nigger '  who  dared 
to  turn  on  him  whenever  he  choose  to  beat  the  black  man 
no  matter  whose  servant  he  was.     Such,  my  readers,  is  the 
style  of  cad,  who,  assuming  the  garb  of  an  Englishman,  does 
much  to  bring  that  honoured  name  into  contempt  among  so- 
called  savages.     I  of  course  engaged  the  best  lawyer  I  could 
find  to  defend  our  servant,  with  whom  we  went  to  the  police 
court.     The  landrost  (magistrate)  heard  the  evidence  of  the 
plaintiffs  and  the  policeman,  who,  to  our  astonishment,  swore 
in  the  most  unblushing  manner  that  October,  at  the  time  of 
the  fray,  was  outrageously  drunk,  and  had  assaulted  every- 
one within  reach.     My  wife,  appearing  for  the  defence,  swore 
that   October  was  absolutely  sober  at  the  time  in  question, 
and  I   corroborated  her  statement   as  regards  his  condition 
half  an  hour  after  that ;  and  informed  the  magistrate  that  I 
was  ready  to  bring  scores  of  witnesses  who  would  give  evi- 
dence as  to  October  being  a  remarkably  civil  and  obliging 
4  boy.'     An  Africander  who  had  seen  the  scrimmage,  and  who 
looked  something  like  a  half-caste  cab-driver,  now  got  into 
the  box.     On  being  asked  if  he  knew  the  complaining  Eng- 
lishman, he  replied  that  he  did,  and  very  good  reason  he  had 
to  do  so  ;  for  the  gentleman  was  always  damning,  cursing 
and  threatening  to  strike  every  servant  whom  he  met.     And 
then,  after  very  drolly  imitating  the  swagger  and  offensive 


276  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

manner  of  the  principal  plaintiff,  he  narrated  how  the  whole 
affair  had  occurred.  The  landrost,  who  no  doubt  knew  far 
more  of  the  histoire  intime  of  the  parties,  than  redounded  to 
their  credit,  'told  them  off'  in  a  mercilessly  contemptuous 
manner.  He  said  that  he  preferred  to  believe  black  men  than 
white  men  such  as  they  ;  and  that  he  was  determined  to  stop 
fellows  who  considered  themselves  *  swells '  from  ill-using  the 
natives.  As  to  the  policeman,  the  magistrate  merely  asked 
him,  '  What  have  you  been  paid  for  all  this  ? '  at  which  there 
was  such  a  loud  roar  of  laughter  from  the  people  in  the  court 
that  the  answer  of  the  guilty-looking  constable  was  lost.  The 
landrost  told  him  to  leave  the  box.  When  ordering  October 
to  be  released,  he  gave  him  to  understand  that  he  could  have 
his  legal  remedy.  I  thought,  however,  it  would  be  better  for 
me  to  recompense  October  in  a  way  he  would  deem  amply 
sufficient,  than  to  stir  up  any  race  hatred,  which  is  a  very 
dangerous  form  of  explosive  in  the  Transvaal  ;  than  to  insti- 
tute a  counter  action  on  behalf  of  our  servant ;  so  we  let  the 
matter  drop.  Although  this  trial  formed  the  subject  of  con- 
versation all  over  the  place,  two  out  of  the  three  Johannes- 
burg daily  papers  took  no  notice  whatsoever  of  it,  and  the 
third  one  merely  gave  the  finding,  without  making  any 
allusion  to  the  evidence  or  the  remarks  of  the  landrost. 
This  example  of  South  African  journalistic  policy  is  worthy 
of  note. 

At  the  time  of  my  arrival  in  Johannesburg,  the  local 
sportsmen  were  busily  engaged  in  preparing  for  the  races, 
the  principal  event  of  which  was  the  Johannesburg  Handicap. 
Knowing  that  I  was  a  veterinary  surgeon  and  had  experience 
in  the  training  of  racehorses,  Mr  Ben  Curtis  and  his  cousin 
Mr  Lay  asked  my  advice  about  a  horse  of  theirs,  called 
Vichy,  who  was  entered  for  this  race.  This  son  of  Hermit 
had  run  about  fifteen  times  in  England,  and  had  succeeded 
in  winning  only  a  couple  of  small  selling  races.  He  was  then 
sent  out  to  South  Africa.  When  I  saw  him,  he  was  lame  in 
one  foreleg  from  a  sprained  suspensory  ligament  and  swollen 


Racing  at  Johannesberg.  277 

fetlock  joint.  The  question  submitted  to  me  was  :  could  I 
get  the  horse  sound  enough  to  run  for  the  big  handicap? 
Messrs  Ben  Curtis  and  Lay  told  me  that  they  stood  to  win 
a  large  amount  on  Vichy,  and  that  they  would  have  to  scratch 
him  if  I  could  not  help  them  in  getting  him  well  enough  to 
run.  As  it  was  one  of  those  cases  in  which  I  had  frequently 
proved  the  immense  efficacy  of  well-regulated  pressure  (pre- 
ferably, by  means  of  cotton-wool  bandaging)  and  massage ;  I 
gave  these  gentlemen  strong  hopes  that  Vichy  would  come 
out  on  the  day  of  the  race  free  from  lameness,  and  that  if  he 
was  good  enough,  his  bad  leg  would  not  stop  him  from  win- 
ning. I  put  him  through  the  course  of  bandaging  and  mas- 
sage, which  reduced  the  swelling,  and  had  the  great  satis- 
faction of  seeing  him  trot  down  sound  to  the  starting-post, 
and  win  his  race  in  easy  style. 

The  all-pervading  presence  of  '  little  men '  and  million- 
aires with  the  instincts  of  East  Enders  makes  racing  in  South 
Africa  an  affair  in  which  there  is  a  considerable  amount  of 
dog  eating  dog.  This  undesirable  state  of  things  will  natur- 
ally mend  as  the  country  becomes  more  settled  and  opened 
up  by  railways.  The  Johannesburg  racing  company  is  well 
managed,  and  has  a  flat  and  steeplechase  course  with  stand, 
paddock,  etc.,  enclosed  like  at  Sandown  Park.  Although, 
when  I  was  at  the  Gold  Fields,  there  was  not  a  single  qualified 
veterinary  surgeon  at  Johannesburg,  I  did  not  see  the  pro- 
spect of  being  able  to  earn  enough  to  pay  my  expenses,  if  I 
had  set  up  in  that  capacity  at  the  Randt.  The  ordinary 
horses  were  not  worth  enough  to  pay  for  skilled  veterinary 
attendance,  and  the  treatment  of  racehorses  would  come  in 
only  in  the  way  of  an  odd  job. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  English  horses  which  are 
imported  into  South  Africa  take  a  comparatively  long  time, 
probably  two  years  on  an  average,  before  they  get  sufficiently 
accustomed  to  life  in  South  Africa,  to  thrive  and  show  their 
proper  form  there,  I  have  often  been  asked  why  it  is  that 
these  animals  take  so  long  to  become  acclimatised,  and  have 


278  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

always  replied  that,  in  my  opinion,  climate  had  nothing  to  say 
to  this  fact,  which  I  felt  certain  was  entirely  due  to  the  poor 
quality  of  South  African  hay,  even  when  it  is  supplemented 
with  oat  hay.  Although  the  climate  of  India  is  far  hotter  than 
that  of  South  Africa,  we  find  that  newly-imported  English 
horses  do  much  better,  as  far  as  their  health  and  condition 
are  concerned,  in  the  former  than  in  the  latter  country.  The 
grass  and  hay  which  are  given  to  valuable  horses  in  India 
are,  however,  exceptionally  good  ;  better  even,  I  am  inclined 
to  think,  than  what  can  be  got  in  England.  I  would  advise 
anyone  who  intended  to  send  a  racehorse  to  South  Africa 
in  order  to  run  there,  to  make  arrangements  for  exporting 
good  English  hay  for  the  animal's  use.  The  small  extra 
expense  might  be  justly  regarded  as  a  cheap  insurance  against 
loss  of  condition. 


CHAPTER     XXI. 

Racing  in  South  Africa — Polo — Performances  at  Pretoria — An  Accident — 
Enthusiasm  of  the  Boers — General  Joubert — Breaking-in  a  Zebra — The 
Language  of  the  Boers — A  Journey  by  Coach — Prize  Fighting  in  South 
Africa — Nickless  and  Kelly — Majuba  Hill  and  Laing's  Nek — Harrismith 
— Hendrik  Truter — Maritzburg — Sir  Charles  Mitchell — Colonel  Swaine 
and  the  nth  Hussars— Horsebreaking  at  Durban — Farewell  to  October 
— The  Climate  of  South  Africa — Return  to  England. 

RACING  in  South  Africa,  to  which  I  briefly  alluded  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  has  a  fine  future,  though  a  some- 
what ignoble  present.  The  *  great  game '  in  order  to  flourish, 
requires  to  be  managed  by  men  who  are  independent  of  it 
either  for  their  livelihood  or  for  their  recreation,  and  whose 
probity  and  love  of  fair  play  are  above  suspicion.  It  also 
needs  a  public  that  is  wealthy,  numerous,  and  fond  of  sport. 
With  the  opening  up  of  the  country,  increased  population, 
and  improved  railway  communication,  all  these  things  no 
doubt  will  come  to  pass  in  South  Africa. 

279 


280  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

The  well-attended  race  meetings  which  were  held  thirty 
years  ago  on  the  common  just  outside  Cape  Town  on  Sea 
Point  Road,  and  which  were  chiefly  managed  by  the  officers 
who  garrisoned  the  colony,  now  exist  only  in  history.  The 
Dutch  and  Africander  inhabitants  would  willingly  look  on  at 
the  races,  but  with  few  exceptions  they  did  not  see  the  force 
of  paying  for  entrance  into  any  of  the  enclosures,  when  they 
did  not  know  the  difference  between  the  starting-post  and 
the  judge's  box.  By  the  withdrawal  of  the  troops,  the  number 
of  owners  and  supporters  of  racing  have  become  greatly 
diminished.  The  ground  was  accordingly  changed  to  private 
land  about  six  miles  outside  of  Cape  Town  and  not  far  from 
the  camp  at  Wynberg ;  but  the  public  is  not,  as  yet,  educated 
up  to  paying  point  The  racing,  what  there  is  of  it,  is  very 
poor;  not  much  better  than  Indian  jymkhanah  form.  Mr 
Graham  Cloete,  secretary  of  the  City  Club  and  races,  and 
cousin  of  Mr  *  Paradox '  Cloete,  does  his  best ;  but  even  with 
contributions  levied  from  '  under  and  over,'  faro,  three-card 
trick,  and  other  '  table  '  men,  racing  at  Cape  Town  is  in  a  dying 
condition,  and  has  but  little  hope  of  improvement.  The  busy 
commercial  town  of  Port  Elizabeth  has  a  flourishing  turf 
club,  nice  racecourse,  and  one  of  the  '  straightest '  of  men 
and  pleasantest  of  companions,  for  a  bookmaker,  in  Nobby 
Clarke.  At  Kimberley,  racing  may  be  regarded  as  a  thing  of 
the  past.  So  much  for  racing  in  Cape  Colony. 

Johannesburg  is  the  only  racing  centre  in  the  Transvaal. 
The  sport  on  the  Randt,  as  I  have  previously  said,  is  well 
conducted,  and  good  stakes,  amounting  in  some  cases  to 
£1,500,  are  given.  There  are,  however,  so  few  horses  and 
owners  that  two  meetings,  the  programmes  of  which  have  to 
be  strengthened  by  pony  events,  chases  and  hurdle  races,  are 
quite  enough  for  the  requirements  of  the  place.  In  the 
Orange  Free  State,  the  sportsmen  of  Bloemfontein  and 
Harrismith  make  spasmodic  though  well-intended  efforts  at 
getting  up  meetings.  Racing  in  Natal,  in  which  colony  there 
are  fixtures  at  Durban  and  Maritzburg,  is  at  a  low  ebb.  As 


Racing  in  South  Africa.  281 

Johannesburg  is  now  connected  by  rail  with  Port  Eliza- 
beth and  East  London,  and  will  soon  be  united  to  Durban, 
racing  in  South  Africa  is  bound  to  improve.  Yet  I  think  it 
will  be  a  long  time  before  it  will  be  worth  a  stranger's  while 
to  take  horses  out  there  to  race.  There  are  a  few  English 
jockeys  of  moderately  fair  pretensions  and  some  Africander 
light  weights.  The  fixtures  are  so  few  and  as  a  rule  so  un- 
important, and  the  distances  between  them  are  so  enormous, 
that  South  Africa  is  a  very  poor  place  for  a  jockey.  The 
horses  are  of  inferior  selling  race  form.  There  is  no  steeple- 
chasing  or  hurdle  racing  worth  speaking  of;  and  the  racing 
ponies  are  moderate  in  the  extreme.  Again  I  say,  all  these 
things  will  be  changed  for  the  better  in  the  near  future.  The 
one  great  reformation  which  South  African  racing  sorely 
needs,  is  the  formation  of  a  central  turf  club  (preferably  at 
Johannesburg)  which  would  legislate  for  the  entire  country. 

To  the  best  of  my  belief,  Johannesburg  is  the  only  place 
in  South  Africa  at  which  there  is  a  non-military  polo  club. 
The  '  soldiers '  have  a  club  at  Maritzburg  and  are  the  chief 
supporters  of  the  game  at  Wynberg  (Cape  Town).  Polo  can 
be  played  in  South  Africa  only  under  great  difficulties  ;  for 
the  white  population  is  not  alone  small  in  number  and  widely 
distributed,  but  there  are  remarkably  few  ponies  in  that 
country  suitable  to  the  game.  To  me,  the  strangest  thing 
about  the  horse  flesh  of  that  part  of  the  world,  is  that  al- 
though the  ordinary  horse  is  a  hardy,  leggy  animal  of  from 
14.2  to  15.1  and  has  often  a  manifest  dash  of  the  Arab,  there 
are  extremely  few  smart  ponies  from  13.2  to  14  hands  to  be 
met  with.  There  are  several  hard-working  Basuto  ponies  to 
be  found  ;  but  they  are  almost  all  too  slow. 

Having  bade  good-bye  to  our  kind  friends  at  Johannes- 
burg, we  went  to  Pretoria,  which  is  about  twenty-four  miles 
distant,  and  which  is  the  capital  of  the  Transvaal.  Having 
had  the  way  well  prepared  for  us  by  the  newspapers,  we  were 
well  received  by  the  Dutch  and  English  residents,  and  had 
the  good  luck  to  get  the  able  and  courteous  Mr  Jack  Hess  to  act 


282  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

for  us  as  manager.  As  a  large  number  of  Boers  had  come  in 
from  the  country  to  the  Agricultural  Show,  which  was  being 
held  at  that  time,  I  determined  to  give  a  couple  of  public 
performances,  as  well  as  to  hold  a  class.  The  first  one  came 
off  in  the  Berea  Park,  which  is  an  enclosed  ground,  and  had 
I  not  been  particularly  thick  in  the  skull,  my  tour  would  have 
abruptly  ended  on  that  day.  A  very  vicious  horse  which  I 
was  handling  in  the  ring,  struck  me  with  one  of  his  fore  feet 
so  hard  on  the  top  of  the  head  that  I  reeled  back  from  the 
force  of  the  blow.  My  wife  seeing  this,  rushed  into  the  ring 
and  begged  me  to  stop  the  performance.  Though  very  dizzy, 
I  had  just  enough  sense  left  to  feel  bitterly  annoyed  that  the 
animal  should  have  got  the  better  of  me  for  the  time  being ; 
so  I  told  her  I  was  all  right,  and  then  hearing  the  shouts  of 
the  Boers  who  were  cheering  the  horse  which  was  defeating 
the  '  Redneck,'  I  took  off  my  hat  and  told  them  that  I  was  an 
Irishman,  and  that  my  wife  would  ride  the  horse  in  an  hour. 
I  must  have  looked  a  funny  object,  speechifying  with  my  hat 
in  my  hand  and  the  blood  streaming  down  my  face  on  to  my 
clothes.  When  the  show  was  over,  one  of  my  Dutch  friends 
proudly  remarked,  that  none  of  the  Dutch  ladies  who  saw 
the  accident,  fainted,  turned  pale,  went  away,  or  showed  the 
slightest  concern,  as  Englishwomen  would  have  done,  had 
they  been  present.  But  to  return  to  the  description  of  the 
breaking,  I  need  only  say  that  I  felt  so  weak  from  the  effects 
of  the  concussion  and  from  loss  of  blood,  that  I  could  get  no 
further  on  with  it,  than  to  make  the  horse  quiet  to  be  saddled 
and  mounted.  Although  I  knew  he  would  buck  if  he  was 
made  to  go  on,  I  dared  not  delay.  A  glance  at  my  wife  in- 
formed me  that  she  was  ready  to  pull  the  show  out  of  the 
metaphorical  fire  which  was  waiting  to  consume  it.  On 
seeing  my  signal,  she  walked  into  the  ring,  and  in  the  next 
moment  was  in  the  side  saddle.  As  soon  as  she  shortened 
the  reins  and  touched  the  horse  to  make  him  go  on,  he  '  went 
to  market '  (as  Australians  say)  in  a  style  I  have  seldom  seen 
equalled,  and  at  every  buck  he  gave,  he  uttered  a  loud  grunt 


Breaking-in  a  Zebra.  283 

of  fury.  Not  being  able  to  move  her  in  the  saddle,  he  at  last 
'  gave  in.'  As  such  a  fine  riding  feat  by  any  man,  let  alone  a 
lady,  had  never  before  been  seen  by  the  assembled  Boers, 
their  habitual  stolidity  gave  way  to  enthusiasm,  and  they 
warmly  cheered  and  praised  the  Englishwoman. 

The  Boers  were  so  well  pleased  with  our  first  show,  that 
we  had  more  than  double  the  number  of  them  at  our  second 
one.  As  the  payment  of  an  entrance  fee  is  a  product  of 
civilisation  but  little  understood  among  these  primitive 
people,  the  policemen  whom  I  had  engaged  and  I  myself 
had  a  desperate  struggle  to  keep  at  bay  the  army  of  would- 
be  '  deadheads '  who  stormed  our  gate.  When  the  battle  was 
at  its  height,  General  Joubert,  the  hero  of  Laing's  Nek  and 
Majuba  Hill,  came  to  my  help,  and  by  voice  and  hand  so 
vigorously  aided  the  defence,  that  the  tumult  subsided, 
and  we  opened  to  a  paying  '  house.'  The  only  part  of  this 
performance  worth  noticing,  was  the  breaking  to  saddle  of  a 
young  Burchell's  zebra,  which  I  accomplished  in  a  short  time 
without  any  difficulty.  This  animal  belonged  to  a  Dutch 
gentleman,  a  resident  of  Pretoria,  whose  name,  if  I  remember 
rightly,  was  Mr  Ziervogel.  A  few  hours  before  the  show 
began,  he  very  kindly  promised  to  let  me  experiment  on  it. 
As  I  knew  I  could  easily  break  it  in,  and  as  I  was  anxious  to 
take  it  with  me  to  England,  I  wanted  to  buy  it  then  and 
there ;  but  he  put  me  off  by  saying  that  we  could  settle  that 
afterwards.  When  the  show  was  concluded  and  the  zebra 
was  quiet  to  ride,  Mr  Ziervogel's  'afterwards'  became  like 
unto  St  Patrick's  '  to-morrow '  which  never  came  to  the  last 
snake  in  Ireland  after  my  patron  saint  had  inveigled  him 
into  his  strong  box. 

Several  gentlemen  attended  my  class  in  Pretoria.  The 
most  of  them  had  a  good  deal  of  experience  with  horses, 
and  were  keen  to  learn  everything  about  breaking.  In  the 
Transvaal,  to  say  nothing  of  Cape  Colony,  Orange  Free 
State,  or  Natal,  I  certainly  left  behind  me  several  expert 
pupils  who  were  capable  of  breaking-in  any  Burchell's 


284  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

zebra.  Accordingly,  I  was  not  at  all  surprised  at  reading  in 
the  Field,  about  a  year  after  I  had  quitted  South  Africa,  that 
a  successful  attempt  had  been  made  to  utilise  these  animals 
for  coach  work.  I  need  hardly  say  that  breaking-in  horses 
or  zebras  for  harness  is  much  easier  than  for  saddle.  The 
Burchell's  zebra  is  a  far  more  docile  animal  than  the  moun- 
tain zebra  (equus  zebra),  of  which  I  broke-in  a  specimen 
in  Calcutta  for  my  wife  and  myself  (see  page  186)  to  ride. 
There  are  still  large  numbers  of  Burchell's  zebras  to  be 
found  north  of  the  Transvaal ;  but  the  mountain  zebra  is 
nearly  extinct.  For  further  information  about  these  striped 
asses  and  the  extinct  quagga,  I  may  refer  my  readers  to 
The  Points  of  the  Horse. 

The  nickname '  Rooinek  '  (Redneck)  which  the  Boers  apply 
to  the  English,  refers  to  the  red  or  rather  reddish-brown 
appearance  which  the  action  of  the  African  sun  gives  to  the 
comparatively  fair  skin  of  our  countrymen.  The  '  touch  of  the 
tar-brush,'  which  has  been  at  work  for  a  few  hundred  years 
in  South  Africa,  preserves  the  epidermis  of  the  Boers 
from  this  temporary  discoloration.  The  language  spoken  by 
these  people  is  a  Dutch  patois,  so  much  mixed  up  with  Kafir, 
Hottentot,  English  and  other  forms  of  speech,  that  it  is  all 
but  unintelligible  to  a  newly-arrived  Hollander.  Its  gram- 
mar is  more  simple  even  than  that  of  Persian  or  Hindu- 
stance  ;  and  as  it  is  expressive  and  easily  learnt,  it  forms 
a  useful  lingua  franca. 

As  Mr  Meiring,  who  is  an  officer  of  the  Free  State 
Customs,  had  kindly  guaranteed  me  a  large  class  at  Harri- 
smith  ;  we  returned  to  Johannesburg,  which  was  in  our  route, 
and  I  took  seats  for  ourselves  and  October  in  the  coach  that 
ran  between  the  Randt  and  Charlestown,  which  was  then 
the  terminus  of  the  Natal  railway. 

It  was  bitterly  cold,  pitch-dark  and  raining  hard  on  the 
May  morning  when  we  were  called  at  four  o'clock  to  get  up 
and  depart  again  on  our  travels.  After  trudging  through 
the  darkness  and  driving  rain  for  about  half  a  mile,  we 


Travelling  by  Coach.  285 

arrived  at  the  posting  office,  and  found  the  coach  waiting 
for  us.  This  conveyance  was  a  long  four-wheeled  box, 
inside  which  the  passengers  sat  vis-a-vis,  and  had  their 
luggage  tied  on  outside.  We  climbed  into  its  dark  inte- 
rior, and  tumbling  over  three  other  wayfarers,  we  stowed 
ourselves  in  the  first  convenient  corner,  shivering  with  cold 
and  glad  to  think  that  if  ever  we  were  to  travel  over  this  road 
again,  it  would  be  by  an  express  train.  October  had,  in 
the  meantime,  wrapped  himself  in  a  few  horse-rugs,  lit  his 
pipe,  and  deposited  himself  somewhere  on  the  outside.  At 
last  all  was  ready,  the  twelve  ponies  were  put  in,  the  driver 
mounted  the  box-seat,  took  his  long  whip  in  both  hands, 
cracked  it  vigorously,  gave  a  few  yells,  and  away  the  ponies 
trotted  down  the  dimly-lighted  street.  In  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  we  were  out  in  the  open  veldt,  and  soon  were  jolt- 
ing through  slush,  sand  and  stream,  with  a  few  short  inter- 
vals for  refreshments  at  wayside  shanties  till  eight  o'clock 
in  the  evening,  when  we  put  up  for  a  part  of  the  night  at 
a  comparatively  comfortable  inn.  We  found  our  three 
companions  of  travel  pleasant,  obliging  fellows.  They 
were  itinerant  prize  fighters  who,  like  ourselves,  were  try-' 
ing  to  run  a  show.  They  were  not  able  to  give  a  public 
performance  in  the  Transvaal ;  for  the  Dutch  authorities 
would  not  allow  such  exhibitions  to  take  place  in  their 
country  ;  and  probably  they  had  worn  their  welcome  some- 
what threadbare.  They  were  therefore  going  to  try  their 
luck  in  Natal.  The  eldest  of  them  was  George  Stevens,  a 
man  of  about  forty,  who  had  fought  some  battles  in  Eng- 
land as  a  light  weight.  The  next  in  age  was  Donovan, 
who  had  been  defeated  for  the  middle-weight  championship 
of  South  Africa  by  Kelly  of  Maritzburg;  and  lastly  there 
was  Barny  Malone,  a  9-stone  man  of  about  twenty-seven, 
whose  colours  had  also  been  lowered  by  Kelly,  to  whom  he 
had  given  away  a  great  deal  of  weight.  Barny  had  been  a 
clown  in  Frank  Fillis's  circus ;  but  after  having  had  an 
accident,  he  lost,  through  want  of  confidence,  the  knack  of 


286  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

turning  summersaults,  so  he  took  up  prize  fighting  as  the 
next  easiest  job.  He  was,  at  the  time  I  met  him,  in  the 
unfortunate  predicament  of  not  being  able  to  get  on  a  match 
with  anyone  at  9  stone,  and  of  not  being  good  enough  to 
concede  14  Ibs.  to  Kelly.  The  fight  between  the  Maritzburg 
lad  and  Donovan  was  decided  in  the  Orange  Free  State, 
and  when  the  police  of  that  Republic  tried  to  stop  it,  the 
backers  of  Kelly,  who  saw  that  their  man  was  winning 
easily,  pulled  out  their  revolvers  and  declared  that  they 
would  shoot  anyone  who  interrupted  the  game.  The  battle 
was  then  continued,  and  Kelly  won.  As  business  was  boom- 
ing merrily  along  in  South  Africa  at  that  time,  Kelly,  who  I 
may  mention  is  a  steady  young  fellow  and  fond  of  athletics, 
netted  as  a  result  of  his  victory  a  large  sum,  which  I  do  not 
think  I  would  be  far  out  by  estimating  at  about  ^"3000.  With 
this  in  his  pocket,  he  took  a  pleasure  trip  to  England, 
and  proud  of  his  title  of  middle-weight  champion  of  South 
Africa,  he  got  on  a  match  with  a  then  unknown  man  called 
Nickless,  who  knocked  him  about  in  such  an  easy  style, 
that  the  Sporting  Life  and  Sportsman,  on  the  supposition 
that  Nickless  was  a  fourth-rate  man,  made  merry  over  the 
lamentable  ignorance  of  South  African  people  about  boxing, 
when  such  a  duffer  as  Kelly  could  pose  as  their  champion. 
So  Kelly  returned  to  Maritzburg  far  poorer  in  money  and  fame 
than  when  he  had  left  it,  and  recommenced  serving  drinks 
over  the  bar  of  his  patron  publican,  with  a  chastened  spirit 
Time,  the  healer,  at  last  brought  its  salve  for  the  lad's 
wounded  vanity ;  for  Nickless  soon  proved  that  the  mean 
opinion  of  his  abilities  formerly  held  by  the  sporting  papers 
was  entirely  wrong,  and  he  is,  at  the  time  I  am  writing, 
ready  to  fight  any  lo-stone  man  in  the  world. 

We  seemed  to  have  hardly  settled  to  sleep  before  we 
were  again  called  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  had 
to  start  before  daylight.  Tired  and  stiff  from  the  jolting 
of  the  coach,  we  arrived  by  noon  that  day  at  Charlestown. 
The  Belgrave  Hotel  in  which  we  put  up,  was  clean  and 


Majuba  Hill.  287 

well  provisioned ;  mine  host  attentive ;  the  liquors  good, 
the  climate  delightful;  the  bright  coal  fire  in  the  taproom, 
the  first  we  had  seen  in  South  Africa,  and  above  all  things, 
Majuba  Hill  was  within  easy  reach.  Next  morning,  after 
a  capital  breakfast,  we  found  a  pair  horse  ramshakle  Stan- 
hope and  a  guide  waiting  for  us.  Our  amateur  cicerone 
was  a  Mr  Petly  of  the  Natal  Mounted  Police,  who  had, 
at  the  thoughtful  instigation  of  our  landlord,  volunteered 
in  the  kindest  possible  manner  to  show  us  over  the  ground. 
We  were  indeed  lucky  to  have  his  courteous  and  intelligent 
help  ;  for  he  had  fought  at  Laing's  Nek,  and  had  been  with 
the  main  body  of  the  troops  when  General  Colley  was  shot. 
After  a  drive  of  about  four  miles  up  the  first  slopes  of  the 
mountain,  we  got  out  and  walked  up  the  steep  hillside 
which  the  Boers  climbed  on  the  morning  of  that  memorable 
27th  February  1881.  The  position  of  the  Transvaal  troops 
was  behind  Laing's  Nek,  which  is  a  saddle  in  a  low  range 
of  hills,  about  five  miles  in  extent,  between  high  mountains, 
which  guard  its  flanks;  the  left  being  also  secured  by  the 
Buffalo  River,  which  runs  at  the  foot  of  the  hills.  This 
neck,  through  which  passed  the  line  of  communication  be- 
tween Natal  and  the  Transvaal,  is,  on  a  rough  guess,  about 
2000  feet  lower  than  the  hills  on  each  side  ;  the  higher  of 
the  two  being  precipitous  Majuba  on  the  right. 

The  Majuba  mistake  appears  to  have  been  due  to  the  mad 
egotism  of  Sir  George  Colley,  who  having  been  defeated  at 
Laing's  Nek  and  at  Ingago,  evidently  tried  to  retrieve  his 
reputation  by  a  dash  at  Majuba  during  the  temporary  absence 
of  Sir  Evelyn  Wood,  who  had  gone  to  Maritzburg  in  order  to 
hasten  up  the  arrival  of  reinforcements.  It  was  the  custom 
of  the  Boers  to  occupy  Majuba  by  day  with  pickets,  which 
were  withdrawn  at  night  On  the  morning  of  the  27th 
February,  they  were  surprised  at  seeing  against  the  sky  line 
men  moving  on  the  crest  of  the  now  historical  hill.  Fearing 
that  their  right  flank  would  be  turned,  they  gallantly  resolved 
to  make  a  counter  attack,  and  despatched  about  400  men  for 


288  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

this  purpose  to  scale  the  mountain  side.  In  the  meantime, 
General  Colley's  troops,  of  about  the  same  number,  who  had 
gained  the  top  of  the  hill  before  daybreak,  found  themselves 
on  a  piece  of  ground,  which  is  about  1 50  yards  square,  and 
which  is  slightly  depressed  in  the  centre.  It  was  an  ideal 
position  on  which  to  make  a  stand  even  against  vastly 
superior  numbers  ;  but  with  an  incredible  want  of  foresight, 
General  Colley  neglected  to  properly  defend  the  edge  of  this 
basin  which  faced  the  enemy.  Had  he  done  so,  it  would  have 
been  impossible  for  a  single  Transvaaler  to  have  reached  the 
top.  Almost  the  first  intimation  of  danger  which  was  con- 
veyed to  our  men,  was  the  firing  of  the  Boers  who  had  crept 
up  and  taken  shelter  behind  the  rocks  and  boulders  which 
surround  the  ground  that  had  been  occupied  by  the  English. 
Confusion  and  then  panic  ensued,  with  the  result  of  a  black- 
ened page  in  our  military  history.  These  young  Dutch 
farmers  were  accustomed  from  their  early  youth  to  handle 
a  rifle  and  stalk  game.  From  the  open  nature  of  the  veldt, 
they  had  to  shoot — as  they  did  with  extraordinary  accuracy 
— springbok  and  blessbok,  often  at  distances  of  from  400  to 
600  yards.  I  may  mention  that  our  famed  Indian  shikaris, 
such  as  Nightingale,  Colonel  Campbell  (The  Old  Forest 
Ranger],  Gunning  Campbell,  Kennedy,  Shakespeare,  Forsyth, 
Kinloch  and  others,  have  always  held  that  about  200  yards 
is  the  limit  of  a  fair  sporting  range  for  black  buck  or  ibex. 
We  have,  however,  this  consolation  for  our  feelings  as  regards 
Majuba,  that  if  we  come,  which  God  forbid,  into  collision  again 
with  the  Boers,  that  we  shall  find  them  far  less  formidable  than 
they  were  fourteen  years  ago ;  for,  owing  to  the  rapid  dis- 
appearance of  game,  the  young  Dutchmen  are  not  nearly  such 
good  rifle  shots  as  were  their  fathers.  Happily  an  appeal  to 
arms  is  not  likely  to  be  again  needed ;  for  the  attack  made 
by  English  capital  and  intellect  on  the  rich  gold  fields  of  the 
Transvaal  cannot  be  resisted  by  the  rough  farmers,  whose  sole 
ambition  is  to  have  a  homestead  far  from  the  abode  of  any 
other  man. 


Majuba  Hill.  289 

Too  little  credit,  I  think,  has  been  awarded  by  the  English 
writers  that  have  described  the  Majuba  affair,  to  the  heroism 
of  the  Boers,  who  finding  that  their  enemy  had  practically 
turned  their  flank,  gallantly  resolved  at  all  hazards  to  make 
an  attack  up  the  steep  mountain  side. 

After  examining  the  nature  of  the  ground,  we  performed 
the  sad  duty  of  visiting  the  few  memorials  of  our  dead 
countrymen.  A  whitewashed  rough  stone,  with  '  Colley  fell ' 
in  letters  of  black  paint  on  it,  marks  the  spot  where  the 
English  leader  was  shot.  His  grave,  I  may  mention,  is 
between  two  trees  which  stand  out  prominently  by  them- 
selves on  the  side  of  Prospect  Hill,  which  is  in  the  centre 
of  the  ground  that  was  occupied  by  the  English.  A  hand- 
some stone  cross  shows  the  place  where  sleeps  poor  Captain 
Maud,  who  after  resigning  his  commission  in  the  Grenadier 
Guards,  joined  the  58th  Regiment  as  a  volunteer.  Some 
abominable  ghoul  has  knocked  off  a  corner  of  this  cross  quite 
recently.  Other  low-lived  scoundrels  have  carved  their  con- 
temptible names  on  the  small  wooden  cross  over  the  grave 
of  twenty  men  of  the  58th.  A  woman  (!)  not  to  be  behind 
men  in  shamelessness,  has  also  added  her  name,  or  had  it 
added  by  some  depraved  companion.  It  is  consoling  to  know 
that  the  creature  was  too  uneducated  to  spell  it  properly. 

However  heartburning  to  Englishmen  may  have  been  the 
action  of  Mr  Gladstone  in  staying  the  avenging  hand  of 
General  Roberts,  we  must  not  forget  that  our  quarrel  was 
an  unjust  one.  By  our  meddling  and  oppressive  policy,  we 
drove  a  large  number  of  the  Dutch  farmers  out  of  Cape 
Colony,  which  they  had  occupied  for  many  years  before  our 
arrival.  They  sought  refuge  in  Natal  out  of  which  we  pushed 
them  into  the  country  beyond  the  Vaal  River.  Not  content 
with  having  harried  them  so  far,  our  Government,  egged  on 
by  the  Exeter  Hall  Brigade,  began  to  worry  them  in  their 
new  location.  Their  reasonable  demand  for  representation 
in  return  for  the  taxes  they  were  paying  was  refused,  contrary 
to  the  wish  of  Sir  Theophilus  Shepstone,  the  British  Governor 

T 


290  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

of  the  Transvaal,  who  was  beloved  by  the  Boers  and  was  in 
thorough  touch  with  them.  His  successor,  in  1879,  Sir  Owen 
Lanyon,  was  a  man  void  of  tact,  and  had  no  sympathy  with 
the  people  over  whom  he  was  placed.  He,  either  ignorantly 
or  culpably,  misrepresented  to  his  Government  that  the  Trans- 
vaalers  desired  English  rule.  It  is  probable  that  but  for  his 
evil  influence,  our  heavy  loss  in  life  and  honour  would  not 
have  been  incurred. 

Had  Mr  Gladstone  not  made  peace  at  the  time  he  did, 
it  is  all  but  certain  that  General  Roberts  with  his  10,000 
men,  would  have  come  up  and  beaten  the  farmers'  army. 
'  Then/  say  the  Conservatives,  ( we  could  have  made  peace 
with  honour,  and  given  back  with  a  brave  show  of  generosity, 
the  country  we  had  unjustly  seized.'  But  we  must  remember 
that  it  takes  two  to  make  peace  as  well  as  war.  The  sym- 
pathies of  the  Boers  in  the  Orange  Free  State  and  those  in 
Cape  Colony — hardy,  resolute  fellows  and  incomparable  rifle- 
men— were  becoming  stronger  every  day  in  favour  of  their 
Transvaal  countrymen,  whom  they  certainly  would  have 
joined  in  many  thousands,  had  General  Joubert's  army  been 
sorely  pressed.  It  is  doubtful  if  General  Roberts,  brave 
soldier  and  brilliant  leader  as  he  is,  could  have  reduced  the 
Transvaal  to  subjection  with  only  the  troops  he  had  brought 
along  with  him.  Probably  10,000  more  would  have  been 
required,  and  in  the  meantime  the  whole  of  South  Africa 
would  have  been  in  a  blaze.  I  may  reasonably  ask  :  would 
all  the  continental  nations  have  calmly  looked  on  while  we 
carried  on  this  unjust  and  oppressive  war  against  a  people 
who  were  fighting  for  their  liberty,  and  who  were  closely 
allied  to  some  of  them  ?  When  one  gets  beaten,  fairly  and 
squarely,  it  is  only  human  nature  to  call  out  to  one's  big 
brother  for  help.  But  when  one's  foe  happens  to  have  big 
brothers  of  his  own,  it  is  perhaps  better  for  one  to  make  up 
the  quarrel,  than  to  allow  it  to  implicate  all  one's  friends  and 
relations. 

From   Charlestown  we  went  most  of  the  way  to  Hard- 


Oliver  Davis.  291 

smith  by  train  and  had  only  a  short  distance,  over  which  the 
trains  now  run,  to  go  by  coach.  My  class  at  Harrismith  was 
similar  to  that  at  Pretoria  arid  Colesberg,  being  composed 
chiefly  of  farmers  who  spent  a  good  portion  of  their  lives 
among  horses.  The  appreciation  of  these  hard,  practical  men 
was  very  flattering  to  me,  especially  as  they  had  never  heard 
my  name  mentioned  in  connection  with  books  on  horses.  I 
could  not  help  thinking  that  if  my  wife  and  I  had  not  been  par- 
ticularly smart  at  our  work,  we  would  not  have  won  the  good 
opinion  of  the  Boers,  whose  hatred  of  the  English  is  equalled 
only  by  their  contempt  for  us  as  horsemen.  These  farmers, 
I  need  hardly  say,  judge  Englishmen  only  by  the  specimens 
who  go  out  to  South  Africa,  few  of  whom  have  had  any 
previous  experience  among  horses.  One  of  the  members 
of  my  Harrismith  class  was  Mr  Hendrik  Truter,  who  had 
led  the  Boers  in  their  attack  up  Majuba  Hill  against  General 
Colley's  party.  Either  to  pose  me  or  to  test  my  skill,  he 
brought  a  horse  that  was  extremely  difficult  to  catch  when 
loose,  and,  if  I  remember  rightly,  to  ride  when  caught.  I 
accomplished  so  easily  the  task  he  had  set  me,  in  making 
this  animal  obedient,  that  instead  of  being  pleased,  he  seemed 
rather  annoyed  that  a  '  Rooinek '  should  be  a  better  breaker 
than  any  Boer.  Though  the  '  score '  was  a  paltry  one,  I  was 
glad  to  have  been  able  to  make  it  off  the  redoubtable  Boer 
leader.  Mr  Truter,  who  is  about  fifty  years  of  age,  is  one 
of  the  finest  men  I  have  ever  seen.  He  stands  about  6  feet 
4  inches ;  is  well  built ;  straight  as  a  dart ;  is  of  immense 
breadth  of  shoulders  and  depth  of  chest ;  and  has  a  hard, 
resolute,  good-looking  face.  Although  the  Orange  Free 
State  was  at  peace  with  us  during  the  Transvaal  war,  a 
large  number  of  Free  State  men,  among  whom  was  Truter, 
joined  General  Joubert's  army.  The  Majuba  storming  party, 
which  was  led  by  Truter,  consisted,  I  believe,  chiefly  of  them. 
I  saw  a  good  deal  of  Mr  Oliver  Davis — who  lives  at  Harri- 
smith and  whose  name  has  been  mentioned  several  times  in 
the  London  papers  in  connection  with  the  Matabele  war — 


292  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

at  Harrismith,  Maritzburg,  and  Durban.  He  is  a  good 
sportsman,  hard  to  beat  across  country,  an  owner  of  race- 
horses, and  is  a  great  favourite  with  everyone  who  knows 
him.  His  horse  Capsome  was  for  several  years  by  far  the 
best  steeplechase  horse  in  South  Africa.  One  of  the  Days, 
nephew,  I  believe,  of  old  William  Day,  the  famous  trainer, 
used  to  ride  and  train  for  Mr  Davis.  Day  is  a  fine  cross- 
country rider.  Hall  is  another  good  man  between  the  flags. 

After  Harrismith,  we  went  to  Maritzburg  where  the 
annual  agricultural  show  was  being  held,  and  I  was  asked  by 
the  committee  to  judge  horses  and  jumping.  I  accepted  the 
invitation  with  pleasure  and  did  my  best  to  give  satisfaction. 
This  show,  being  a  long  established  fixture,  was  well  attended, 
and  the  exhibits  proved  that  agriculture  was  prosperous  in 
the  Colony.  I  must,  however,  say  that  many  of  the  saddle 
horse  sires  which  I  saw  exhibited  here,  at  Pretoria,  Bloem- 
fontein,  and  Colesberg,  were,  to  my  thinking,  utterly  unsuit- 
able to  the  requirements  of  the  country  ;  in  that  they  had 
heavy  shoulders,  upright  pasterns  and  the  respective  direction 
of  their  back  tendons  and  cannon  bones  were  far  from  being 
as  nearly  parallel  to  each  other  as  they  ought  to  have  been. 
I  also  noted  that  the  baneful  system  of  judging  of  the  good- 
ness of  a  horse's  forelegs  by  the  measurement  just  below  the 
knee,  instead  of  also  taking  into  consideration  the  width  of 
the  fetlock  from  front  to  rear,  was  too  much  in  vogue.  It 
would  have  given  me  great  pleasure  to  have  expounded  my 
views  on  the  conformation  of  horses  more  widely  than  I  did 
in  South  Africa  ;  but  I  had  no  time  to  do  so.  As  it  was,  I 
had  to  refuse  invitations  to  judge  at  the  agricultural  shows 
in  Port  Elizabeth  and  Graf  Reinet. 

Besides  a  couple  of  public  exhibitions  in  Maritzburg,  at 
which  we  did  well,  I  held  a  class  in  the  town,  and  another  in 
the  camp  for  the  officers  of  the  nth  Hussars  and  Gunners. 
Colonel  Swaine,  who  was  commanding  the  '  Cherubims,'  was 
so  pleased  with  my  work  that  he  got  me  to  teach  all  his 
sergeants,  as  well  as  his  officers,  how  to  break-in  horses.  Sir 


Durban.  293 

Charles  Mitchell,  the  Governor,  and  Lady  Mitchell  attended 
our  shows,  and  appeared  to  take  a  great  deal  of  interest  in 
them.  We  had  the  honour  of  being  invited  to  the  ball  they 
gave  on  the  Queen's  Birthday,  and  had  a  very  pleasant 
evening.  One  of  the  most  popular  sportsmen  in  Natal  is  Mr 
Phil.  Payne,  to  whom  I  had  a  letter  of  introduction  and  who 
was  very  kind  to  us.  He  is  a  good  example  of  a  man  who 
waited  too  long  in  the  race  for  wealth.  During  the  '  boom 
he  made  a  lot  of  money,  and  as  he  knew  that  the  inflated 
prices  could  not  last  for  ever,  he  determined  that  he  would 
sell  out  and  '  go '  when  his  capital  had  reached  the  limit  of 
.£200,000,  which  would  yield  him  the  £10,000  a  year  that 
he  considered  sufficient  for  a  nice  place  in  the  country  and  a 
house  in  town  for  the  season.  When  his  pile  rose  to  £120,000 
he  was  strongly  advised  to  sell ;  but  it  appeared  such  a  pity 
to  miss  the  chance  of  affluence  for  life,  that  he  held  on,  with 
the  result  that  the  first  crash  came  and  down  went  all  the 
shares.  The  proper  policy  now  appeared  to  be  to  wait  for 
a  reaction  ;  but  unluckily  the  shares  went  lower  and  lower 
until  many  of  them  disappeared  altogether.  South  Africa  is 
such  a  wonderful  country  for  changes  of  fortune  that  few 
things  would  surprise  me  less  or  give  me  greater  pleasure  than 
to  see  Mr  Phil.  Payne,  who  is  as  good  a  loser  as  he  is  a 
winner,  return  home  in  a  year  or  two  with  that  couple  of 
hundred  thousand  which  has  so  long  eluded  his  grasp.  Both 
at  Maritzburg  and  at  Durban  I  was  fortunate  to  have  as  my 
manager,  Mr  Cuthbert,  who  treated  me  more  as  a  friend,  than 
as  a  mere  employer. 

The  horse  which  was  kept  waiting  for  me  at  Durban,  and 
whose  reputation  for  untamed  vice  had  been  spread  all  over 
the  Colony,  turned  out  to  be  a  maligned  animal,  that  with 
ordinary  skill  and  patience  might  have  been  converted  into  a 
lady's  quiet  hack.  He  made  no  attempt  to  buck  when  my 
wife  rode  him,  and  although  very  nervous  at  first  of  being 
handled,  he  gave  in  and  got  quiet  as  soon  as  he  found  that  if 
he  obeyed,  no  harm  would  befall  him. 


294  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

Having  finished  with  Durban,  we  formed  ourselves  into  a 
committee  of  ways  and  means.  We  might  have  gone  to  East 
London,  Queenstown,  King  Williamstown,  Aliwal  North, 
Bloemfontein  ;  have  had  another  turn  at  Colesberg  and 
Kimberley,  and  then  finished  at  Vryburg.  But  we  were  both 
very  tired  of  the  work  and  wanted  to  get  back  to  London. 
Besides,  my  wife  did  not  think  her  health  could  stand  the 
strain  of  another  trip,  and  as  she  had  been  the  best  part  of 
the  show,  I  thought  it  only  fair  that  her  interests  should  be 
first  considered.  I  was  very  sorry  to  say  good-bye  to  dear 
old  October,  who  had  been  a  faithful  and  helpful  friend  to  me. 
He  had  saved  money  enough  to  buy  a  sufficiency  of  cattle 
and  wives  to  keep  him  well  supplied  with  food  and  strong 
drink  for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  without  working.  As  he 
had  no  higher  aspirations  than  the  gratification  of  his 
instincts,  he  was  troubled  with  no  longing  after  more  wealth 
than  he  possessed.  He  was  happy,  and  that  was  all  he 
wanted  to  be.  I  offered  to  take  him  with  me  by  sea  to  East 
London  or  Port  Elizabeth  and  from  thence  to  send  him  on 
to  his  home  in  Craddock  ;  but  he  shook  his  head,  doubled 
himself  up,  and  laughed  long  and  low,  as  if  he  thought  my 
offer  excruciatingly  funny.  I  asked  him  how  he  intended 
going  to  Craddock.  He  told  me  that  he  would  travel  to 
Ladysmith  by  train,  and  would  then  march  across  country  on 
foot.  I  represented  to  him  that  by  taking  such  an  overland 
route  he  would  spend  a  good  deal  of  money  and  time  ;  but 
that  if  he  went  with  me  his  journey  would  cost  him  nothing. 
The  more  I  argued  with  him,  the  more  he  laughed  and  shook 
his  head,  till  at  last  the  fact  began  to  dawn  on  me  that  the 
fear  of  my  carrying  him  off  and  making  him  a  slave,  was  the 
cause  of  October's  refusal  to  go  on  board  a  steamer.  That 
evening  I  saw  him  off  by  train,  and  having  been  accustomed 
to  the  demonstrative  forms  of  grief  freely  indulged  in  by  well- 
rewarded  Eastern  and  Western  servants  when  parting  from 
their  respective  masters,  I  could  not  help  being  somewhat 
disappointed  with  October  for  not  weeping  or  at  least  show- 


Good-bye  to  October.  295 

ing  some  signs  of  emotion  on  his  ugly,  honest  face,  when  I 
took  my  last  look  on  it,  framed  in  the  window  of  a  third-class 
railway  carriage.  But  he  only  grinned,  happily  though 
affectionately  at  me.  And  then  I  began  slowly  to  understand 
that  I  had  at  last  met  a  man  who  was  not  a  hyprocrite,  and 
the  worst  of  it  was  that  I  was  obliged  to  part  from  him  a  few 
seconds  after  I  had  made  this  astounding  discovery ;  for  the 
station-master,  at  that  moment,  was  waving  his  flag  for  the 
engine-driver  to  start.  *  Good  baas  ;  always  good  baas,'  said 
October,  waving  his  hand  to  me.  And  then  the  train  bore 
him  slowly  off  into  the  ewigkeit :  as  far  as  I  was  concerned.  I 
believe  that  he  was  very  fond  of  me,  in  his  own  way,  and  that 
he  bore  me  no  ill-will  for  my  supposed  treachery  in  wanting 
to  carry  him  off  into  bondage. 

I  felt  remarkably  well  after  all  the  hard  physical  work  I 
had  gone  through  during  the  six  months  we  had  spent  in  South 
Africa,  the  dry,  warm  climate  of  which  did  my  chest  a  great 
deal  of  good.  For  about  a  year  before  going  out  to  the  Cape 
I  suffered  so  much  from  bronchitis,  that  I  had  feared  that  my 
air  passages  would  become  chronically  affected.  Though  more 
than  double  that  time  has  elapsed  since  we  left  that  country, 
my  lungs  and  their  tubes  continue  to  remain  in  perfect  order. 
When  the  locality  has  been  judiciously  selected,  the  climate 
of  South  Africa,  in  many  cases,  offers  much  benefit  to  sufferers 
from  chest  ailments.  If  very  dry  and  bracing  air  be  needed, 
Harrismith  (for  choice)  or  Charlestown  might  be  selected  ;  as 
they  are  over  5000  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The 
altitude  of  Bloemfontein  is  nearly  as  great.  If  a  warmer, 
though  also  a  dry,  climate  be  required,  I  know  no  place  more 
suitable  or  convenient  than  Craddock. 

We  had  a  pleasant  journey  home  on  board  the  Union 
ss.  Tartar. 


Photo  by  M.  H.  Hayes. 


CHAPTER     XXII. 

Homeward  Bound — Blazing  Weather — '  Professor  '  Norton  Smith — The 
Dublin  Horse  Show — Jumping — Paris — High  School  Riding — Baucher 
— M.  Auguste  Raux — Gustave — Teaching  a  Horse  to  Jump — Horse  Tam- 
ing Competition  between  Sample  and  Leon. 

OUR  trip  round  the  coast  from  Natal,  and  then  home 
by  Madeira,  was  delightful.  The  sea  for  the  portion 
of  the  route  south  of  Gibraltar  is  generally  smooth,  and  there 
is  really  no  unpleasant  heat  even  when  crossing  the  equator. 
Either  homeward  or  outward  bound  we  had  not  had  more  than 
two  days  hot  enough  to  make  us  wish  to  change  ordinary 
English  summer  clothes  for  those  of  lighter  material  ;  and 
on  the  warmest  nights  we  were  able  to  sleep  *  down  below.' 
In  the  tropics,  the  heat  far  out  in  the  ocean  is  much  less  than 
close  to  land,  which  continues  to  radiate  into  the  surrounding 
air  the  caloric  it  has  received  from  the  sun  long  after  that  orb 
has  disappeared  below  the  horizon.  When  the  fierce  rays  of 
the  tropical  sun  beat  down  for  some  hours  on  rock  or  sand, 

296 


Hot  Weather.  297 

the  surface  of  the  ground  often  becomes  so  hot  that  it  would 
be  painful  to  place  the  palm  of  the  hand  or  sole  of  the  foot  on 
it,  and  consequently  it  causes  the  air  which  blows  over  it  to 
assume  more  or  less  the  character  of  a  blast  from  a  furnace. 
On  this  account,  the  highest  range  of  the  thermometer  on 
board  steamers  going  through  the  Red  Sea,  is  about  20°  F. 
more  than  on  the  Cape  boats  when  crossing  the  equator. 
Owing  to  the  land-locked  nature  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  the 
heat  there  is  exceptionally  great,  even  reaching  at  times, 
I  have  heard  from  reliable  authorities,  to  120°  F.  in  the 
shade.  In  the  Scinde  desert  I  have  endured,  in  the  shade, 
a  heat  of  125°  F.  As  a  good  example  of  the  radiating 
power  of  arid  ground,  I  may  mention  that  I  have  known 
the  thermometer,  at  nine  o'clock  at  night,  to  register 
109°  F.  at  Meean  Meer  in  the  Punjab.  At  that  tempera- 
ture, the  sheets  and  pillow  of  one's  bed  had  become  so 
hot  that  one  could  not  lie  down  on  them  without  having  had 
them  first  sprinkled  with  water.  Unless  the  wind  is  'dead 
aft'  and  blowing  at  the  same  rate  as  the  steamer  is  pro- 
ceeding, there  will  be  a  certain  amount  of  cooling  wind 
made  by  the  ship.  During  the  three  voyages  I  made 
round  the  Cape  in  sailing  vessels,  we  had  some  very 
hot  weather  when  becalmed  in  the  'doldrums,'  which  is 
the  belt  of  ocean  that  extends  10  or  12  degrees  north  and 
south  of  the  equator,  and,  as  a  rule,  is  untroubled  by  the 
trade  winds.  If  Cape  Town  was  a  pleasant  place  to  live  in,  it 
would  soon  become  a  favourite  resort  for  tourists,  who  would 
be  naturally  attracted  by  the  delightful  sea  voyage  to  and 
from  it. 

As  soon  as  we  arrived  in  London,  we  began  to  put  in 
order,  amplify  and  correct  the  materials  which  my  wife  had 
collected  for  a  long-threatened  book  on  ladies'  riding.  Ever 
anxious  to  learn  something  new  about  horses  we  went  one 
afternoon  to  the  Crystal  Palace  to  see  a  "  Professor  "  Norton 
Smith  who  had  come  over  from  Canada  to  show,  so  the  ad- 
vertisements said,  a  marvellous  system  of  horse  taming.  I 


298  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

must  say  that  the  performance  greatly  disappointed  us,  and 
that  there  was  nothing  new  in  it,  except  that,  instead  of  tying 
up  one  foreleg,  in  order  to  throw  a  horse  down,  and  pulling  up 
the  other  foot  by  a  rope  or  strap  passing  through  the  surcingle 
or  through  a  pulley  attached  to  it,  as  Rarey  used  to  do ;  both 
feet  were  pulled  up,  with  the  result  that  the  animal  came 
down  on  his  knees  with  more  or  less  violence.  This  way  of 
making  a  horse  lie  down  appeared  to  me  very  much  inferior 
to  the  method  which  was  first  shown  in  England  by  Sample, 
and  which  was,  so  Sample  tells  me,  invented  by  Hamilton 
the  American  horse  tamer.  Norton  Smith  strictly  confined 
himself  to  the  dreary  taming  business,  and  we  came  away 
unamused  and  uninstructed. 

Among  the  people  I  had  left  behind,  I  was  glad  to  see 
on  my  return,  Mr  Vero  Shaw,  who  is  one  of  the  few 
genuine  literary  Bohemians  I  have  ever  met.  He  is  the 
best  all-round  judge  of  a  dog  in  England,  especially  if  the 
animal  be  a  bull  terrier.  *  In  rain  or  shine '  he  is  always  the 
same  cheery  companion,  and  there  would  be  no  difference 
in  his  kindly  greeting  were  he  to  meet  me  sweeping  a  cross- 
ing, or  dispensing  hospitality  from  a  well-stocked  four-in- 
hand  at  Ascot.  I  have  found  from  experience  that  one's 
acquaintances  are  far  more  ready  to  accept  one's  surround- 
ings than  one's  self. 

I  was  glad  to  meet  Mr  J.  Moray  Brown,  an  old  79th  and 
Wellington  College  man.  In  India  he  did  a  great  deal  of 
shooting  and  pigsticking,  especially  in  the  Central  Provinces, 
and  had  his  name  bracketted  with  that  of  Mr  (now  Colonel) 
W.  S.  Hebbert  as  the  winner  of  the  greatest  number  of  First 
Spears,  including  one  off  a  panther,  for  the  Nagpore  Hunt 
Cup  of  1870-71.  At  the  end  of  fourteen  years  service,  and 
tired  with  the  slowness  of  promotion,  he  retired  in  1880,  had 
seven  years'  hunting  in  the  south  of  England,  and  then  '  took ' 
to  journalism  and  literature.  Being  an  old  polo  hand,  having 
played  the  game  twenty  years  ago  at  Aldershot  and  Edin- 
burgh, his  articles  on  polo  in  Land  and  Water,  of  which  he  is 


Photo  by  Dickinson,  114  New  Bond  Street ',  W. 


MR  J.  MORAY  BROWN. 


Dublin  Horse  Show.  301 

Hunting  Editor,  have  been  an  attractive  feature  in  that  paper. 
He  is  Polo  Manager  at  Ranelagh,  and  has  written  several 
good  books,  the  one  of  which  most  takes  my  fancy  is  that  on 
Polo,  This  good  sportsman  puts  pigsticking  in  front  of  hunt- 
ing, and  polo  third.  I  would  give  hunting,  chasing  and  pig- 
sticking as  the  order  of  preference,  and  polo  fourth,  probably 
because  I  have  not  played  that  game  much.  But,  quot 
homines,  tot  sententice. 

As  my  wife  had  never  been  to  Ireland,  I  was  glad  to  have 
the  chance  of  taking  her  to  the  Dublin  Horse  Show,  at  which 
she  would  have  a  favourable  view  of  the  horses  and  men  of 
Paddyland.  The  show  of  saddle  horses  at  Ball's  Bridge  was 
certainly  very  fine.  The  most  of  them  were  grandly  *  topped  ' 
and  carried  their  heads,  necks  and  tails  well.  I  could  not 
help  thinking  that  the  '  bone '  of  too  many  of  them  had  been 
obtained  more  by  an  infusion  of  cart  blood  than  by  judicious 
selection.  Not  having  been  in  Ireland  since  I  began  the 
serious  study  of  breaking,  I  was  greatly  surprised  to  see  that, 
with  few  exceptions,  the  horses  were  singularly  deficient  of 
either  '  manners '  or  '  mouths.'  When  cantered  round  a 
large  ring,  it  was  enough  to  take  the  conceit  out  of  an  Irish- 
man for  his  countrymen's  knowledge  of  horses,  to  see  how  the 
animals  bored  on  their  riders'  hands,  led  with  the  wrong  leg, 
went  at  the  speed  which  each  one  thought  best,  and  required 
at  least  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  in  which  to  pull  up.  The 
necessity  for  instruction  in  horse  breaking  (not  horse  taming) 
was  obvious,  and  nothing  would  have  given  me  greater  pleas- 
ure than  to  have  gone  through  the  country  on  a  breaking 
tour,  had  such  a  scheme  been  feasible  ;  but  the  horse-taming 
farce  had  been  played  so  often  that  had  I  had  any  such  inten- 
tion, I  would  have  had,  first  of  all,  to  live  down,  for  goodness 
knows  how  many  years,  the  bad  impression  made  by  others. 
I  need  hardly  say  that  breeders  and  owners  of  horses  in  the 
United  Kingdom  are  keenly  alive  to  the  advantages  of  know- 
ing how,  quickly  and  efficiently,  to  give  their  horses,  which 
have  been  reared  under  civilised  conditions,  snaffle  -  bridle 


302  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

mouthsj  form  their  paces,  and  teach  them  to  jump  ;  but  mere 
instruction  in  the  taming  of  wild  horses  or  of  exceptionally 
vicious  ones  is,  practically,  of  no  use  to  them  ;  and  they 
naturally  resent  it  being  foisted  on  them  as  an  all-sufficient 
system  of  horse  instruction. 

I  thought  the  judging  of  the  jumping  particularly  good  ; 
for  the  rule  of  taking  the  horses  over  all  the  fences  at  fair 
hunting  speed  was  insisted  on  throughout.  I  must  say  that 
the  majority  of  the  horses  pulled  hard  ;  and  consequently 
were  badly  broken-in.  How  true  the  old  saying  is,  that 
manners  make  the  horse.  The  jumping  course  was  in  the 
form  of  a  horse-shoe  of  about  300  yards  in  extent.  The 
first  fence  was  a  low  hedge  in  front  of  water  about  9  feet 
wide  ;  the  second,  which  was  opposite  the  stand,  was  a  ditch 
about  4  feet  wide  in  front  of  a  bank  about  3  feet  high,  4 
feet  wide  on  the  top,  and  without  a  ditch  on  the  landing  side  ; 
the  third,  a  4-foot  wall,  the  upper  third  of  which  consisted  of 
loose  stones;  the  fourth,  an  on-and-off,  about  5j  feet 
high,  with  4-feet  ditches  and  nearly  straight  sides  ;  the  fifth, 
a  1 3-feet  water  jump  with  a  hedge  in  front  of  it ;  and  the 
sixth  and  last,  a  sort  of  flattering  compromise  between  a 
hedge  and  a  hurdle.  The  first  fence  was,  as  it  ought  to  have 
been,  of  an  easy  character  ;  the  second  presented  still  less 
difficulty,  and  could  have  been  negotiated  by  any  ordinary 
lo-hand  Shetland  pony  ;  and  the  last  one  could  be  brushed 
through  with  immunity.  The  4-foot  wall,  the  big  bank  and 
the  water  jump  required  a  clever  horse  to  take  them  properly. 
Besides  this  regular  course,  there  was  a  4-foot-9-inch  wall, 
which  was  capped  with  loose  stones,  and  which  was  reserved 
for  special  competitions.  By  the  kindness  of  the  committee, 
I  was  allowed  to  come  into  the  jumping  enclosure,  and  while 
there,  one  afternoon,  I  had  a  short  conversation  with  Lord  X, 
who  is  considered  in  Ireland  to  be  a  great  authority  on 
horses.  For  information  sake,  I  asked  him  why  there  was  no 
gate  or  posts  and  rails  on  the  jumping  course,  and  suggested 
that,  for  instance  the  substitution  of  a  gate  in  front  of  the 


Dublin  Horse  Show.  303 

stand,  for  the  trivial  bank,  would  add  to  the  variety  of  the 
fences,  and  would  consequently  improve  the  course  as  a 
means  of  testing  the  jumping  capabilities  of  the  animals. 
He  informed  me  that  such  obstacles  were  not  put  up, 
because  they  were  not  met  with  out  hunting  in  Ireland.  I 
urged  that  they  were  often  encountered  in  England,  which 
was  a  great  market  for  the  sale  of  Irish  hunters ;  that  the 
fact  of  a  hunter  being  a  good  timber  jumper  would  add  to  his 
price ;  and  that,  consequently,  a  gate  or  post  and  rails,  say 
4  feet  high,  would  be  a  useful  and  legitimate  test.  He  said 
that  I  talked  nonsense,  and  that  if  my  advice  were  acted 
upon,  the  majority  of  the  horses  would  break  their  necks.  I 
pleaded  that  it  was  easy  to  teach  any  ordinary  horse  to  jump 
a  gate ;  and  that  I  would  be  only  too  happy  to  show  him 
how  it  could  be  done.  He  replied  that  he  did  not  want  to 
see ;  because  he  knew  everything  about  breaking,  and  had, 
in  fact,  written  an  article  on  that  subject  in  a  certain  book, 
I  congratulated  him  on  being  the  only  man  in  the  world  who 
had  ever  reached  finality  in  any  art ;  and  went  away  thinking 
that  if  such  be  the  kind  of  instructor,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
Irish  horses  are,  as  a  rule,  badly  broken. 

Although  the  jumping  was  good,  the  two  things  that 
pleased  us  most  in  the  show,  were  the  riding  and  the  great 
personal  interest  taken  in  the  leaping  competitions  by  the 
large  majority  of  the  thousands  who  were  present.  Almost 
everyone  of  the  spectators  knew  some,  if  not  all,  of  the 
horses  and  riders,  and  keenly  and  intelligently  criticised  the 
good  and  bad  points  of  the  men  and  animals.  I  was  proud 
of  my  countrymen's  love  of  horses,  and  contrasted  it  with  the 
lukewarm  feeling  entertained  by  the  inhabitants  of  London 
about  that  subject,  apart  from  betting.  The  '  dash '  with  which 
the  men  rode  (there  were  no  ladies  among  the  competitors) 
was  in  marked  contrast  to  the  hold-him-tight-by-the-head 
style  usually  adopted  at  Islington. 

After  a  trip  to  the  county  of  Cork,  we  returned  to  England 
and  went  to  Paris  with  the  idea  of  learning  all  we  could 


304  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

about   high  school   riding,   and,  if  possible,  buying  a  well- 
broken  manege  horse. 

Had  we  not  been  people  of  impulse,  we  would  have 
thought  out  the  matter,  made  due  inquiries,  and  would  have 
refrained  from  invading  the  capital  of  France  at  a  time  when 
'  everyone '  was  out  of  it ;  but  then  the  great  pleasure  of 
yielding  to  the  temptation  of  the  moment  would  have  been 
lost.  We  were  disappointed  chiefly  at  not  being  able  to  see 
Mr  James  Fillis,  who  had  gone  to  Berlin  under  an  engage- 
ment to  ride  in  Renz's  Circus.  We  had  an  obliging  and 
efficient  guide  in  M.  Charles  Sorel,  who  being  a  Parisian, 
a  high  school  rider,  and  an  assistant  at  the  Cirque  d'Ete, 
knew  all  the  places  which  would  be  interesting  to  us. 
Besides,  as  he  was  well  acquainted  with  the  English  system 
of  riding,  having  lived  in  England  and  also  stayed  with 
Captain  Fitzgerald  at  the  Royal  Military  Riding  School, 
Gloucester  Crescent ;  he  was  able  to  understand  our  difficul- 
ties, and  explain  the  points  of  variance  between  the  English 
methods  and  those  of  the  high  school.  In  this  research  I 
must  acknowledge  the  great  assistance  I  received  from  the 
reading  of  Dr  Le  Bon's  book,  Equitation  Actuelle,  in  which 
many  instructive  and  original  views  of  this  subject  are 
described.  Our  experience  in  Paris  taught  us  the  very  note- 
worthy truth,  which  had  hitherto  remained  unknown  to  us, 
that  Pequitation  savante  (to  adopt  the  term  which  French 
high  school  professors  love  to  apply  to  their  art)  is  a  system 
of  horse  dancing,  or  horse  deportment.  However  useful  it 
may  be  as  a 'setting-up  drill,'  it  is  inapplicable  to  ordinary 
and  long-continued  requirements,  on  account  of  progression, 
according  to  it,  being  performed  under  unusually  fatiguing 
conditions,  and  because  the  horse  is  deprived  of  the  initia- 
tive. For  a  long  journey  or  for  cross  country  work,  keeping 
a  horse  at  the  rassembler  would  be  as  appropriate  as  attempt- 
ing to  utilise  the  'goose  step'  for  a  day's  march.  The 
required  abnormal  '  collection '  is  obtained  principally  by  the 
spur,  one  of  the  chief  maxims  of  la  haute  ecole  being  beaucoup 


High  School  Riding.  305 

de  jambes,  et  peu  de  mains.      Hence,  when  any  of  the  various 
airs  de  manege  is  being  performed,  the  spurs  have  to  be  kept 
close  to  the  horse's  sides  ;  if  not  actually  with  painful  effect, 
with  sufficiently  vivid  remembrance  of '  punishment,'  to  make 
him   keenly  anxious  to  avoid  its  reinfliction.     It  is  evident 
that  in  order  to  retain  these  '  aids '  in  that  position,  the  knee, 
or  knees  (according  as  the  rider  is  a  lady  or  a  man)  have  to 
be  kept  away  from  the  flaps  of  the  saddle,  with  a  correspond- 
ing decrease  of  firmness  in  the  seat.     In  a  man's  saddle,  the 
knees  can  be  brought  back  in  a  moment  to  the  flaps,  but  in  a 
side-saddle,  the  stirrup  leather,  in  order  to  admit  of  the  free 
use  of  the  spur,  has  to  be  lengthened  out  so  much  that  the 
pressure  against  the  leaping  head,  which  is  all  essential  for 
firmness  of  seat,  and  which  is  obtained  chiefly  by  the  play 
of  the  ankle  joint,  has  to  be  entirely  sacrificed.     No  wonder 
then  that  the  ecuyeres  whom  we  saw  going  over  some  very 
small  jumps    in   the    Hippodrome  at  Paris,  and  later  on  in 
Circus    Renz    at    Hamburg  looked    pictures  of  discomfort, 
each   one   clutching   hold   tight   to   her    horse's    head,    and 
having  her  left  foot  drawn  so  far  back,  that  the  sole  of  the 
boot  was  turned  upwards.      When  we  visited  the  Manege 
Pergolese,  M.  Auguste  Raux,  teacher  of  high  school  riding, 
was  kind  enough  to  tell  us  that  English  ladies  rode  shockingly 
badly ;  because,  so  he  said,  their  left  leg  did  not  hang  down 
by  the  horse's  side.     Although  my  wife  could  have  easily 
demonstrated   that  he  was  utterly  wrong,  we  did  not  con- 
tradict him ;  for  gratuitous  instruction  to  riding  masters,  who 
are  the  last  persons  to  accept  it  kindly,  was  not  down  in  our 
programme.     We  saw  him  two  or  three  times  at  the  Cirque 
d'Ete,  where  he  used  to  go  in  order  to  look  after  a  pupil  of 
his,  an  fauyere  who  each  night  did  a  high  school  riding  act  on 
a  handsome,  well-bred  horse,  that  was  brilliant  and  perqant 
to  an  extraordinary  degree.     His  movements  were  so  light 
that  he  appeared  almost  to  tread  on  air  (if  I  may  be  per- 
mitted the  use  of  this  threadbare  simile) ;  so  much  so,  indeed, 
that  the  first  time  I  saw  him  perform  I  became  anxious  to 

u 


306  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

see  how  the  '  fakement '  was  done.  As  my  wife  had 
been  told  that  the  young  lady,  when  mounted,  was  tied 
into  her  saddle,  we  both  determined  to  satisfy  our  re- 
spective curiosities.  On  the  second  night  of  our  attend- 
ance at  the  circus,  having  taken  seats  close  to  the  exit 
from  the  ring,  we  agreed  to  miss  a  part  of  the  numero 
preceding  the  entrance  of  the  lady ;  so,  before  it  was 
finished,  we  slipped  out  into  the  promenade  which  was 
reserved  for  those  who  had  tickets  for  the  best  seats,  and 
which  gave  access  to  the  loose  boxes  and  stalls  for  the  per- 
forming horses.  Greatly  to  my  wife's  disappointment,  the 
lady  was  already  mounted  ;  but  the  object  of  my  search  was 
gained,  for  we  saw  M.  Raux  standing  alongside  the  horse 
and  touching  him  up  with  a  spur  which  he  held  in  his  hand. 
Being  restrained  from  going  forward  by  the  reins,  and  being 
excited  by  the  spur,  the  irritated  animal  could  expend  its 
energy  only  by  extravagantly  lofty  movements,  which  in  a 
few  minutes  were  to  win  the  plaudits  of  the  public.  When 
the  Russian  clown,  if  I  remember  rightly,  had  gathered  to- 
gether his  three  performing  cats,  and  had  made  his  exit  in 
a  chariot  drawn  by  a  pig,  with  a  boar  hound,  who  immensely 
enjoyed  the  joke,  acting  as  postilion,  a  wait  of  about  three 
minutes  was  given,  before  opening  the  barriers ;  and  then 
with  a  flourish  of  trumpets  the  lady  and  the  (spur)  proud 
horse  made  their  entrance  through  two  rows  of  drawn-up 
attendants.  I  may  mention  that  the  horse  before  he  began 
his  'turn'  was  sweating  profusely,  and  seemed  fit  to  jump  out 
of  his  skin  ;  not  from  high  spirits,  but  from  the  '  punishment ' 
he  had  received.  The  act  was  all  very  nice  from  a  showman's 
point  of  view ;  but  to  my  mind  there  was  nothing  in  it  to 
please  a  horseman.  The  movements  performed  might  no 
doubt  be  valuable  exercises  in  the  school  training  of  a  horse, 
but  at  best  were  only  a  means  and  not  an  end.  Baron  de 
Vaux,  in  his  charming  book  Ecuyers  et  Ecuyeres,  with  evident 
reference  to  James  Fillis,  says  that  Auguste  Raux  considere 
les  changements  qua  subis  I' equitation  de  cirque  depuis  Baucher 


High  School  Riding.  307 

comme  une  revolution  nefaste!  When  we  saw  Fillis,  as  I  shall 
describe  later  on,  we  were  better  able  to  judge  of  the  correct- 
ness of  these  statements  than  when  we  were  in  Paris.  This 
criticism  was  possibly  inspired  by  Fillis  having  remarked  in 
his  Principes  de  Dressage  et  d*  Equitation  that  certain  French 
dresseurs  broke  their  horses  in  a  manner  similar  to  that 
adopted  with  performing  poodles. 

I  may  explain  to  those  of  my  readers  who  are  not  well 
acquainted  with  the  training  of  horses  for  circus  or  high 
school  work,  that  a  high  degree  of  obedience  can  be  obtained 
from  the  horse,  only  by  lessons,  the  number  of  repetitions  of 
which  depend  for  their  efficacy  on  the  effect  produced. 
Hence,  when  the  greatest  possible  excellence  is  required,  the 
lessons  have  not  alone  to  be  numerous ;  but  have  to  be  con- 
ducted with  severity.  To  the  instructed  I  need  hardly  say 
that  horses,  like  ourselves,  are  so  fond  of  having  their  own 
way  that  fear  of  punishment,  which  should  be  judiciously 
applied,  is  the  best  means  for  making  them  submit  uncondi- 
tionally to  man.  Vanity  or  love  of  admiration,  which  I  have 
not  found  developed  in  the  horse  to  any  profitable  extent, 
can  be  largely  utilised  in  the  teaching  of  tricks  to  the  dog, 
in  whose  character  there  are  many  human  traits  ;  but  not  in 
the  education  of  horses.  We  read  in  Baron  de  Vaux's  work, 
to  which  I  have  previously  referred,  that  '  The  horses 
trained  by  Laurent  Franconi  had  arrived  at  such  a  degree  of 
excellence,  that  during  the  school  evolutions  which  he  made 
them  perform,  his  seat  remained  unaltered,  and  the  use  of 
his  aids  were  imperceptible.  It  was  this  fineness  in  the 
employment  of  the  aids,  to  which  Gueriniere  alluded  when 
recalling  the  delicate  feeling  (pincer)  of  the  spur. 

'  This  delicate  touch  completed  the  perfect  accord  which 
existed  between  the  rider  and  his  pupil,  the  latter  obeying 
the  slightest  indication  of  the  hand  and  legs,  as  I  have 
already  said.  School  work  under  these  conditions  enabled 
the  rider  to  maintain  his  academic  seat  on  horseback.'  The 
public,  no  doubt,  put  down  the  proficiency  of  the  horses  to 


308  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

the  intelligence  of  the  animals,  and  not  to  their  remembrance 
of  the  prick  of  the  spur,  and  the  touches  of  the  whip. 

To  obtain  the  desired  precision  in  school  work  it  is 
necessary,  as  previously  stated,  that  the  horse  should  resign 
the  initiative  absolutely  to  his  rider,  who,  consequently,  has 
to  continue  the  application  of  certain  aids,  or  change  them 
for  others  as  may  be  required.  For  instance,  if  the  horse  be 
cantering  forward  with  the  off  fore  leading,  and  the  rider 
turns  him  to  the  left  without  altering  the  aids,  the  animal 
will  continue  to  lead  with  the  off  fore,  instead  of  '  changing ' 
to  the  near  fore.  Or  if  he  met  in  his  onward  course  a  dan- 
gerous inequality  in  the  ground,  he  would,  instead  of  avoid- 
ing it  by  going  off  to  one  side  or  the  other,  go  into  or  on  top 
of  it  with  the  chance  of  injuring  himself  or  his  rider,  unless, 
indeed,  his  fear  of  an  accident  was  greater  than  his  sense  of 
discipline.  It  is  evident  that  a  horse  which  would  depend 
solely  on  his  master  for  guidance,  would  in  time  lose  to  a 
great  extent  its  instinct  of  self-preservation  when  being 
ridden,  and  would  consequently  be  an  unsafe  '  conveyance  ' 
over  bad  ground,  or  across  a  '  country.'  In  fact,  the  less  de- 
veloped a  horse's  natural  '  cleverness '  is,  other  things  being 
equal,  the  better  school  horse  he  will  prove.  Again  I  say 
that  school  riding  is  worthy  of  practice  only  as  a  means  and 
not  as  an  end.  Owing  to  the  mechanical  condition  of  mind 
into  which  school  horses  are  brought  by  their  training,  they 
are  bad  for  ordinary  outdoor  work.  In  fact,  they  are  rarely 
used  outside  the  manege,  especially  as  hacking,  hunting,  and 
similar  kinds  of  work  tend  to  unfit  them  for  the  business  in 
the  school.  Fillis  told  me  that  Baucher,  with  whom  he  had 
been  an  assistant  for  three  years,  never  to  his  knowledge 
rode  in  any  other  place  than  a  manege  or  circus.  On  one 
occasion,  so  Fillis  related  to  me  when  I  met  him  in  Germany, 
a  nobleman  of  high  rank  came  into  the  manege  belonging  to 
Baucher,  who  at  that  moment  was  riding  a  beautifully 
trained  horse,  on  which  he  performed  a  number  of  elaborate 
evolutions  for  the  benefit  of  his  distinguished  visitor.  While 


Bancher.  309 

they  were  talking  together,  the  nobleman  suddenly  remem- 
bered that  he  had  forgotten  to  post  an  important  letter 
which  he  had  in  his  pocket.  Drawing  it  out  he  handed  it  to 
the  great  fauyer,  and  asked  him,  as  he  was  mounted,  to 
kindly  take  it  as  quickly  as  possible  to  the  nearest  post 
office.  *  Sir,'  replied  Baucher,  '  I  am  overwhelmed  with 
regret  that  I  am  unable  now  to  obey  your  request,  but  if  you 
will  wait  for  three  months,  in  order  to  give  me  time  to  train 
my  horse  to  go  outside,  I  shall  then  be  delighted  to  take  the 
letter  for  you/  Considering  that,  as  a  rule,  it  takes  fully 
two,  if  not  three,  years  to  train  a  horse  properly  for  high 
school  work,  and  that  by  the  end  of  the  required  time  the 
animal  is  generally  rendered  unsound  from  the  abnormal  and 
excessive  strain  thrown  on  his  joints,  tendons  and  ligaments, 
we  need  not  be  surprised  that  la  haute  fcole,  except  for  circus 
work,  has  fallen  into  disrepute  both  in  France  and  Germany. 

I  must  not  omit  to  say  that  M.  Auguste  Raux,  whom  we 
saw  riding  in  his  manege,  rue  Pergolese,  has  a  good  seat  on 
horseback,  is  a  nice  weight  for  the  saddle,  and  is  an  excellent 
ecuyer  and  dresseur. 

My  reason  for  having  wanted  to  buy  a  well-trained  school 
horse  was  to  utilise  him  in  strengthening  our  programme 
during  any  future  tour  we  might  make.  I  gave  up  the  idea  ; 
firstly,  for  the  excellent  reason  that  I  could  not  get  a  capable 
one  which  was  sound  enough  not  to  do  discredit  to  my 
repute  as  a  good  judge  of  horses  ;  and  secondly,  because  the 
more  I  saw  of  school  work,  the  less  I  valued  it  from  a  prac- 
tical point  of  view.  At  about  the  time  when  I  had  come  to 
this  conclusion,  my  wife,  Sorel  and  I  went  for  a  ride  in  the 
Bois  on  three  school  nags,  which  were  listless  and  out  of  con- 
dition from,  probably,  the  hard  work  they  had  gone  through 
during  the  preceding  season.  The  grey  gelding  ridden  by 
my  wife  had  such  capital  shoulders  and  good  action  that  I 
resolved  to  buy  him  and  turn  him  into  a  jumper,  although 
he  was  about  ten  years  old.  I  entrusted  Sorel  with  the  offer 
of  500  francs,  which  was  accepted,  and  we  brought  him  back 


3  io  Among  Men  and  Horess, 

with  us  to  London,  where  I  put  him  up  at  The  Royal  Mili- 
tary Riding-School,  Gloucester  Crescent,  Bayswater.  I  will 
now  let  my  readers  into  a  little  secret,  which  was  that, 
through  all  our  travels,  my  wife,  notwithstanding  the  lavish 
praise  she  had  obtained  for  her  riding  from  foreign  news- 
papers, had  the  great  sorrow  of  her  London  notices  being 
limited  to  a  brief  mention  in  the  Field,  and  some  sketches  in 
the  Graphic.  Wherever  we  went,  after  having  ridden  at 
one  of  our  shows,  to  the  enthusiastic  delight  of  the  men,  she 
was  almost  always  asked  by  some  lady  (of  course)  if  she  had 
ever  performed  in  London.  She  had  then  the  mortification— 
which  was  naturally  aggravated  each  time  it  was  repeated— 
of  explaining  that  the  only  occasion  on  which  she  had  come 
before  the  London  public  in  the  capacity  of  a  lady  rider,  was 
for  charity,  as  I  have  described  on  page  130.  As  we  had  an 
idea  of  going  to  America  later  on,  she  felt  that  the  only 
press  notices  which  would  pass  muster  across  the  Atlantic 
would  be  those  with  the  London  trade  mark  on  them.  As 
soon  as  I  had  concluded  the  purchase  of  the  grey  gelding, 
whom  we  called  Gustave,  I  told  her  to  cheer  up  ;  for,  bar 
accidents,  she  would  have  her  book  full  of  London  '  cuttings  ' 
before  the  year  was  ended.  With  this  object  in  view,  I 
commenced  to  train  Gustave  so  that  he  would  have  a  perfect 
snaffle-bridle  mouth  and  become  a  clever  jumper.  He  was 
a  well-bred  horse,  with  a  moderately-sized  head,  light  neck, 
remarkably  flat  and  sloping  shoulders,  short  back,  good 
loin  and  barrel,  tail  set  on  high,  clean  forelegs  barring  a  few 
splints,  and  with  rather  sickle  hocks. 

Gustave  had  had  his  mouth  spoiled  by  a  long 
succession  of  riding  -  school  pupils,  whose  attacks  on 
the  reins  he  used  to  try  to  avoid  by  throwing  up  his 
head  in  the  air,  or  by  jibing.  He  had  only  a 
very  faint  idea  of  jumping ;  he  was  miserably  thin ; 
and  the  heels  of  all  his  feet  were  contracted,  and 
their  frogs  were  suffering  from  thrush.  The  first  things 
to  do  were,  evidently,  to  get  him  a  nice  loose  box  ;  give 


Teaching  a  Horse  to  Jump.  3 1 1 

him  plenty  of  lucerne,  carrots,  corn  and  hay ;  take  off  his 
shoes  ;  *  lower '  his  heels ;  treat  him  for  thrush ;  and  exercise 
him  on  the  soft  ground  of  the  riding-school.  I  may  here 
mention  the  interesting  fact,  without  stopping  to  offer  any 
explanation  of  it  in  this  place,  that  if  the  tan  which  is  used 
in  riding-schools  be  allowed  to  remain  in  a  horse's  feet,  it 
will  cause  their  frogs  to  rot  away  in  a  short  time.  Conse- 
quently, the  feet  of  animals  which  are  worked  on  such  soil 
should  be  *  picked  out '  immediately  they  come  off  it.  As 
I  am  on  the  subject  of  veterinary  treatment,  it  may  not  be 
out  of  place  if  I  mention  that  a  solution  of  as  much  iodoform 
and  camphor,  or  of  camphor  alone,  as  any  required  quantity 
of  oil  of  turpentine  will  dissolve,  is  an  admirable  applica- 
tion for  thrush.  I  began  to  put  Gustave's  mouth  in  order 
by  means  of  the  long  reins  and  standing  martingale ;  and 
gave  him  his  first  lessons  in  jumping  'at  liberty/  for  which 
work  I  had  the  advantage  of  knowing  how  to  use  the  lung- 
ing whip,  which  has  obtained  its  name  of  chambriere  (house- 
maid) in  French,  from  the  able  manner  in  which  it  puts 
horses  in  order.  The  jumps  over  which  I  practised  Gustave, 
both  at  liberty,  and  with  the  long  reins,  were  a  heavy  log 
and  a  wall  made  of  wooden  planks,  neither  of  which  could 
be  'chanced'  with  impunity.  As  he  had  to  go  over  them 
about  a  dozen  times  a  day,  he  soon  learned  the  important 
lesson  that  it  was  pleasanter  to  jump  than  to  rap  his  shins. 
I  took  care  that  the  notion  of  refusing  did  not  remain  long 
in  his  mind.  I  have  no  doubt  that  many  of  my  readers  who 
have  followed  me  up  to  this,  will  think  that  I  adopted 
the  best  possible  means  of  disgusting  the  horse  with  jumping, 
by  giving  him  so  much  of  it,  and  that  I  did  not  succeed  in 
spoiling  him,  solely  on  account  of  his  marvellous  forbearance 
and  good  temper.  So  far  from  the  grey  gelding  being  of  an 
ingenuous  turn  of  mind,  he  was  as  artful  as  the  proverbial 
<:art-load  of  monkeys,  and  obeyed  only  because  he  found 
that  it  was  better  policy  to  do  so  than  to  resist.  The  idea 
that  it  disgusts  a  horse  to  jump  him  time  after  time  over 


312  .  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

the  same  fence,  holds  good  only  when  the  act  of  leaping 
is  connected  in  his  mind  with  pain,  as,  for  instance,  when 
he  has  infirm  forelegs,  or  when  his  mouth  gets  pulled  about 
by  an  incompetent  rider.  In  less  than  a  month,  I  made 
Gustave  so  clever  that  he  used  to  easily  jump,  on  the  heavy 
tan  of  the  riding-school,  a  bar  5  feet  high  with  my  wife  on 
his  back ;  and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  do  this  when  the  ob- 
stacle had  no  wings  and  was  only  10  feet  long.  I  also 
taught  him  within  this  period  to  strike  off  from  the  halt 
into  any  required  pace  (walk,  trot,  canter  or  gallop),  or  to 
change  his  pace  into  any  desired  one,  or  to  halt  by  the  mere 
application  of  the  leg  and  slight  movement  of  the  body, 
while  the  reins  were  loose  on  his  neck,  and  while  I  kept  my 
hands  in  my  coat-pockets.  He  would  do  this  in  the  open, 
as  well  as  in  the  riding-school.  I  may  state  that  Gustave 
had  never  received  any  high  school  training. 

A  few  days  after  our  return  to  London,  we  met  Professor 
Sample  in  the  street,  looking  very  thin  and  dejected.  We 
took  him  back  with  us  to  lunch,  told  him  how  we  had  got 
on  in  South  Africa,  and  listened  to  his  story.  We  were 
sorry  to  hear  that  he  had  continued  in  a  vein  of  bad  luck 
ever  since  he  had  shown  his  machine  in  London.  His 
affairs  were  then  in  a  desperate  condition,  and  to  crown 
all  his  misfortunes,  his  beloved  machine  was  in  pawn  for 
debt.  He  believed  firmer  than  ever  in  the  glorious  future 
that  was  in  store  for  this  child  of  his  brain,  if  he  could  only 
get  a  chance  of  bringing  it  before  the  public.  His  one 
concern  for  the  plight  in  which  he  then  was,  was  its  influence 
on  the  success  of  his  invention.  I  honoured  him  for  the 
steadfastness  of  his  faith  in  the  thing  that  had  ruined  him, 
and  won  his  heart  for  the  time  being  by  telling  him  that  the 
fact  of  the  public  not  having  accepted  the  machine  in  no 
way  altered  my  good  opinion  of  it.  He  implored  me  to 
help  him  in  giving  it  another  chance,  and  I  need  hardly 
say  that  I  promised  to  aid  him.  I  took  lodgings  for  him 
near  where  I  was  staying,  and  told  him  that  he  would  always 


A  Match.  313 

find  a  knife  and  fork  ready  for  him  at  our  'diggings.'  A 
few  days  after,  he  informed  us  that  Leon,  who  at  that  time 
was  giving  performances  at  the  Aquarium,  had  challenged 
him  in  the  Sporting  Life  to  a  horse-taming  contest  for  £50 
a  side,  and  that  Leon  was  willing  to  let  him  use  his  machine ; 
but  that  he  was  unable  to  accept  the  challenge  as  he  had  no 
money.  I  said  that  I  would  be  only  too  glad  to  act 
as  his  backer,  and  that  I  was  ready  to  go,  then  and 
there,  to  the  office  of  the  paper  and  '  cover '  the  £50  cheque 
which  had  been  left  by  Leon  with  the  editor  of  the  Sporting 
Life.  On  hearing  this,  Sample  seemed  so  overcome  with 
emotion  that  his  eyes  filled  with  tears ;  and  his  throat  with 
sobs.  He  said  a  lot  of  nice  things  about  our  kindness  to 
him  at  a  time  when  no  one  else  would  give  him  a  friendly 
hand.  My  wife,  from  womanly  sympathy,  began  to  cry, 
and  having  got  my  cheque-book  out  of  my  desk,  handed  it 
to  me,  and  begged  me  to  go  at  once  to  the  Sporting  Life 
and  put  Sample's  mind  at  rest.  When  Sample  and  I  ar- 
rived at  the  office,  we  explained  the  reason  of  our  coming, 
and  I  paid  in  my  cheque.  All  the  preliminaries  were  arranged 
without  any  trouble;  an  influential  committee  was  formed; 
and  on  the  opening  night  my  wife  and  I  went  down  early 
to  the  Aquarium  to  see  that  our  man  was  ready  for  the  fray. 
I  may  explain  that  the  field  of  battle  was  the  stage  of  the 
Imperial  Theatre,  which  is  at  the  west  end  of  the  Aquarium. 
When  we  arrived,  we  went  behind  the  scenes  and  found 
Sample  in  a  great  state  of  excitement  on  account  of  there 
being  some  hitch  in  the  working  of  the  machine.  I  begged 
him  to  leave  the  unlucky  thing  alone,  and  assured  him 
that  a  man  of  his  great  experience  and  skill  could  not 
possibly  lose  in  a  competition  against  a  comparative  novice 
who  had  never  been  out  of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  who 
had  taken  to  horses  late  in  life.  He  replied  that  he  did 
not  care  a  button  about  the  match,  and  that  his  sole  object 
in  making  it  was  to  demonstrate  to  the  world  the  marvel- 
lous efficacy  of  his  invention  for  taming  horses  by  machinery. 


314  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

I  tried  to  point  out  that  the  fact  of  my  having  c  found '  the 
^"50  entitled  me  to  a  voice  in  the  matter.  He  begged  me 
to  let  him  play  his  own  game,  and  declared  that  my  money 
was  safe.  As  the  contest  was  to  last  a  fortnight,  the  time 
on  each  evening  being  divided  equally  between  the  two, 
and  as  I  felt  certain  that  the  old  man  would  sooner  die 
than  get  beaten  ;  I  let  him  have  his  own  way,  and  looked 
on.  In  the  meantime,  my  wife  had  found  out  the  dressing- 
room  which  had  been  improvised  into  a  loose-box  for  several 
of  the  supposed  man-eaters  and  equine  demons  which  had 
been  brought  to  be  tamed.  Knowing  only  that  they  had 
been  led  through  the  streets  and  through  the  narrow  pas- 
sage at  the  back  of  the  stage,  and  seeing  that  they  looked 
kindly  at  her,  she  gave  them  carrots,  patted  each  of  them 
on  the  neck,  and  made  friends  with  them.  When,  after 
they  were  brought  on  the  stage,  she  heard  their  characters 
traduced  in  the  severest  possible  manner,  instead  of  smiling, 
she  got  quite  cross.  After  her  inspection  of  the  country, 
she  told  me  that  the  referee,  who  was  the  representative  of 
the  Sporting  Life,  had  got  Sample,  during  my  absence,  to 
sign  a  certain  paper.  On  hearing  this  I  went  to  Sample 
and  asked  him  what  was  the  nature  of  the  document  which 
he  had  signed.  He  told  me  it  was  a  private  affair  of  no 
consequence. 

The  show  commenced  by  Sample  in  dress  clothes  coming 
forward  on  the  stage  and  making  a  speech  in  a  good  deal  of 
his  old  'taking'  style.  Greatly  to  my  regret  for  his  own 
sake,  he  looked  nervous  and  worried,  and  consequently  lost 
touch  with  his  audience,  which  preferred  to  see  something 
done,  than  to  listen.  He  at  last  began  operations  by  getting 
the  machine,  which  had  been  mounted  on  wheels  and  which 
contained  a  horse  that  was  shy  of  steam-engines,  drawn  on  to 
the  stage.  Sample  then  connected  the  revolving  apparatus 
of  the  machine  with  a  small  steam-engine  which  he  had  at 
the  side,  in  order  to  make  the  horse-box  spin  round,  and  to 
render  the  imprisoned  animal  giddy.  But  as  the  stage  had  a 


An  Infernal  Machine.  315 

considerable  downward  slope  to  the  front,  the  tiresome  thing 
would  not  turn  round,  except  very  slowly  and  at  a  terrible 
amount  of  muscular  expenditure  on  the  part  of  the  ever- 
faithful  Joe,  who  had  in  his  usual  kind-hearted  way  came  to 
help  his  master.  The  bad  performance  of  the  machine,  which 
was  really  not  to  blame  for  its  failure  to  act  properly  on  this 
occasion,  was  greeted  with  uproarious  laughter  by  the  audi- 
ence. I  could  have  heartily  joined  in  with  the  merriment, 
had  I  not  known  the  agony  of  mind  that  the  poor  inventor 
was  feeling  at  that  time.  At  last,  seeing  that  he  could  do 
nothing  on  the  stage  with  the  machine,  which  required  to  be 
placed  on  level  ground  in  order  to  work  efficiently ;  the  horse 
had  to  be  backed  out  of  its  confined  position,  and  the  machine 
ignominiously  led  off.  To  make  up  for  this  failure,  Sample 
took  the  nervous  horse  in  hand,  and  in  his  customary  expert 
manner,  after  about  ten  minutes,  made  the  animal  stand  still 
while  he  blew  a  steam  whistle  all  about  it.  This  feat  naturally 
'  showed  up  '  the  unfortunate  machine  still  more. 

Leon  came  on  attired  in  his  usual  sombrero,  Norfolk 
blouse  and  fishing  -  boots,  and  gave  a  show  of  what,  as  far 
as  I  could  see,  he  had  learned  from  Galvayne  and  Norton 
Smith,  and  of  what  they  had  respectively  learned  from 
Sample  and  Gleeson.  To  my  thinking,  his  work  was  en- 
tirely without  merit  from  a  horseman's  point  of  view ;  yet, 
having  an  immense  amount  of  self-confidence  and  self-asser- 
tion, he  '  went  down  '  fairly  well  with  a  certain  class. 

The  second  horse,  if  I  remember  rightly,  which  Sample 
was  given  to  handle,  was  a  reputed  man-eater.  '  Ladies  and 
gentlemen,'  said  Sample,  coming  up  to  the  footlights,  '  I  am 
an  old  man,  and  this  is  a  very  vicious  horse.  To  prove  to  you 
the  excellence  of  my  system,  I  shall  have  him  turned  loose, 
and  merely  by  the  use  of  the  whip  which  I  hold  in  my  hand, 
I  shall,  without  hurting  him,  make  him  so  quiet  that  he  will 
come  up  to  me  to  be  patted.'  The  old  man — whether  he  was 
acting  with  consummate  cleverness,  or  whether,  from  having 
been  a  long  time  away  from  horses,  he  was  really  a  little 


3 1 6  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

nervous,  I  cannot  say — while  he  was  thus  speaking,  looked  so 
forlorn  with  his  anxious  face,  grey  hair  brushed  off  his  fore- 
head, and  trembling  hand  upraised,  as  if  in  appeal  for  pity, 
drew  to  him  the  sympathy  of  all  the  spectators,  and  won  their 
hearty  applause  when,  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  the 
savage  one  finding  that  it  could  in  no  other  way  escape  the 
constant  flicks  of  the  whip  on  its  hind  quarters,  came  up  to 
the  Professor  and .  allowed  him  to  stroke  its  head  and  neck. 
Despite  the  machine  fiasco,  the  large  majority  of  the  com- 
mittee voted  for  the  American.  When  we  three  returned 
home  to  supper,  Sample  promised  to  discard  the  machine  for 
the  remainder  of  the  contest,  which  in  that  case  was  a  cer- 
tainty for  him.  I  tried  to  get  further  information  out  of  him 
respecting  the  purport  of  the  paper  which  he  had  signed,  and 
after  some  pressure,  he  acknowledged  that  it  was  a  secret 
agreement  between  him  and  Leon  with  the  Sporting  Life,  for 
Leon  to  get  back  his  own  cheque ;  for  Sample  to  receive 
my  cheque ;  and  for  both  of  them  to  hold  the  newspaper  free 
from  all  responsibility  in  the  matter.  On  hearing  this  I  got 
annoyed  and  refused  to  listen  to  what  Sample  called  '  reason/ 
Believing  as  I  did  then,  and  do  now,  that  a  match  for  return- 
able, or,  as  I  would  call  them,  bogus  cheques  is  a  deception 
on  the  public,  I  naturally  resented  having  been  made  a  parti- 
cipator, even  though  an  innocent  one,  in  any  such  transaction. 
Sample  said  that  Leon  would  not  have  made  the  match  on 
any  other  terms,  as  it  was  purely  a  '  gate  money '  affair  ;  that 
the  match  would  have  come  off  whether  or  not  I  had  '  put 
up '  the  money ;  that  he  accepted  my  offer  to  be  his  backer, 
because  my  name  would  be  a  '  draw ' ;  that  I  had  better  get 
my  cheque  back  ;  and  that  he  would  substitute  for  it  his  own 
cheque,  which  would  be  handed  back  to  him  to  tear  up  at  the 
end  of  the  contest.  The  editor  of  the  Sporting  Life  returned 
me  my  cheque,  which,  contrary  to  my  expectation,  had  not 
been  *  presented ' ;  I  withdrew  altogether  from  the  competi- 
tion ;  the  committee  voted  almost  unanimously  in  favour  of 
Sample ;  the  public,  probably  because  they  thought  it  was  not 


Military  Riding.  3 1 7 

a  genuine  money  affair,  refused  to  be  drawn  to  it ;  Leon  left 
the  Aquarium  ;  and  Sample  disappeared  from  my  sight.  In 
this  matter,  I  need  hardly  say  that  I  had  no  grievance  against 
either  Leon  or  the  Sporting  Life,  the  editor  of  which  arranged 
matters  in  the  not  unusual  way,  out  of  pure  good  nature  and 
from  the  natural  desire  to  keep  his  paper  before  the  public  as 
a  leader  of  sport. 

During  this  autumn,  at  the  invitation  of  General  Sir 
Evelyn  Wood  and  the  Committee  of  the  Military  Society, 
I  gave  a  lecture  at  Aldershot  on  horses  for  army  purposes. 
I  had  a  large  and  attentive  audience,  and  was  gratified  by 
gaining  the  approval  of  General  Sir  Baker  Russell  and  other 
good  men ;  although  I  could  not  help  feeling  depressed  by 
the  knowledge  that  no  matter  how  clearly  I  might  point  out 
defects  in  our  military  school  system  of  training  horses,  and 
suggest  improvements,  no  words  of  mine  could  loosen  red- 
tape  bands.  Our  military  breaking  has  remained  unaltered 
for  at  least  sixty  years,  and  is  consequently  in  an  antiquated 
condition.  As  this  is  not  the  place  in  which  to  fully  discuss 
such  subjects,  I  may  content  myself  with  saying  that  the 
great  advance  made  in  school  riding  and  breaking  on  the 
Continent  during  the  last  few  years,  has  been  due  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  movements  of  the  horse,  as  investigated 
in  the  first  instance  by  Marey  and  completed  by  Muybridge. 
This  is  exhaustively  shown  in  Barroil's  L'Art  Equestre. 
What  was  good  enough  for  their  grandfathers,  appears  to  be 
regarded  by  our  military  riding  authorities  as  excellent 
beyond  the  possibility  of  improvement.  The  fact  is  that 
their  sixty  or  eighty  year  old  system  is  as  much  inferior  to 
that  of  Raabe  or  Fillis,  as  a  '  Brown  Bess '  is  to  the  present 
magazine  rifle.  I  hope  within  the  next  year  to  bring  out  a 
book  on  military  riding  and  breaking ;  for  such  a  work  is 
greatly  needed.  Even  if  it  be  not  adopted  by  the  military 
authorities,  I  am  certain  that  it  will  be  largely  read  by  officers 
in  the  army,  among  whom  I  have  a  big  reading  public. 


I 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

The  Horsewoman — Practical  Lectures  on  Side-Saddle  Riding — The  Wards — 
Fred  Allen — Teaching  Ladies  to  Ride — Riding  Masters — Learning  from 
Teaching — Improvements  in  Side-Saddles — Safety  Skirts — The  Danger 
of  being  *  Dragged ' — Saddlers — Walsall — Effect  of  Cast-iron  on  the 
Franco-German  War — The  Row — Lady  Dilke. 

ABOUT  this  time,  we  brought  out  The  Horsewoman,  a  book 
on  side-saddle  riding,  written  by  my  wife  and  edited  by 
me.  It  received  a  cordial  welcome  from  the  London  press,  and 
has  had  a  large  sale.  After  it  had  appeared,  we  thought  that 
it  would  be  a  good  idea  to  give  in  London  some  performances 
which  would  prove  that  my  wife  knew  her  subject  practically 
as  well  as  theoretically,  and  which  would  procure  the  long- 
desired  London  press  notices.  Knowing  how  inefficient  are 
the  methods  adopted  in  England,  and  also  abroad,  for  teach- 
ing ladies  to  ride,  and  how  greatly  such  instruction  is  needed, 
we  resolved  to  give  a  series  of  practical  lectures  on  this  sub- 

318 


A  Show  in  London.  319 

ject  according  to  an  entirely  novel  manner.  With  this  object, 
we  hired  Ward's  Riding-School,  in  Brompton  Road,  from 
twelve  to  two  on  the  required  afternoons.  I  did  the  talking 
about  bridles,  saddles,  mounting,  dismounting,  seat,  '  hands/ 
length  of  stirrup  leather,  habits,  etc. ;  and  my  wife  dressed  in 
a  Norfolk  jacket,  breeches  and  boots  illustrated  the  various 
points  on  Gustave,  who  by  that  time  was  beautifully  trained, 
and  was  able  to  jump,  as  I  said  before,  a  bar  5  feet  with  ease 
in  a  very  small  riding-school.  The  mention  of  a  riding- 
school  reminds  me  to  say  that  this  was  the  first  time  my 
wife  had  ever  ridden  in  one.  To  show  the  most  efficient 
manner  by  which  a  lady  could  be  taught  to  ride  in  a  very 
short  time,  I  made,  by  means  of  the  long  reins,  Gustave 
circle,  turn,  leap,  refuse,  and  stop  '  dead '  while  my  wife  sat 
unmoved  in  the  saddle,  with  her  hands  on  her  lap  holding 
a  light  cane.  As  she  had  no  skirt  on,  we  were  able  to  show 
in  an  exact  manner  how  balance  and  grip  could  be  obtained 
in  the  best  possible  way.  I  am  certain  that  we  threw  a 
great  deal  of  new  light  on  the  subject,  and  we  won  warm 
praise  from  all  the  representatives  of  the  press  who  came  to 
see  us.  The  Queen,  in  an  extremely  kind  notice,  described 
our  performance  as  follows  : — 

*  We  cannot  but  recommend  all  ladies  interested  in  eques- 
trian matters,  as  well  as  those  who  are  in  special  need  of 
really  useful  hints  on  riding,  to  take  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  attending  these  lectures.  It  is  a  real  pleasure  to  see  a  lady 
ride  as  Mrs  Hayes  does  ;  she  combines  in  an  unusual  degree 
an  absolutely  firm,  strong  seat  with  a  pretty  and  graceful 
one  ;  as  much  may  be  learnt  by  watching  her  carefully  as 
from  Captain  Hayes's  very  practical  and  useful  instructions. 

'  Mrs  Hayes's  wide  experience  qualifies  her  to  speak  with 
authority  as  to  the  best  methods  of  training  horses  ;  of  the 
newest  and  most  satisfactory  kinds  of  saddles,  stirrups, 
bridles ;  of  ladies'  riding  costumes  ;  and  last,  but  by  no 
means  least,  of  the  novel  method  adopted  by  herself  and 
Captain  Hayes  for  teaching  a  lady  to  ride  well,  and  especi- 


320  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

ally  to  gain  a  firm  seat  in  jumping — that  is,  by  learning  to 
ride  without  reins.  Of  this  Mrs  Hayes  gave  a  practical 
demonstration.  Captain  Hayes  first  explained  the  proper 
way  of  mounting  a  lady  and  arranging  the  habit  ;  also  dwelt 
at  length  on  the  proper  length  of  stirrup,  the  various  kinds 
of  safety  stirrup,  and  other  preliminary  matters  ;  and  then 
mounted  Mrs  Hayes  on  her  horse,  which  had  on  an  ordin- 
ary snaffle  bridle  and  a  standing  martingale.  The  short 
reins  were  taken  off,  and  long  ones  of  about  20  feet  put  in 
their  place.  Captain  Hayes,  on  foot,  proceeded  to  drive  the 
horse  round,  turning  it  quickly,  walking,  trotting  or  cantering, 
and  finally  driving  it  over  some  big  jumps,  which  were  taken 
in  excellent  style.  One  can  readily  believe  that  this  method 
is  well  adapted  to  give  the  pupil  a  really  firm  seat,  as  well  as 
to  give  her  confidence  ;  and  it  makes  it  impossible  for  the 
beginner  to  acquire  the  very  common,  but  most  insecure  and 
ungraceful  trick  of  holding  on  by  the  reins.  Much  might  be 
said  of  the  large  amount  of  valuable  and  practical  instruction 
given  by  Captain  Hayes  in  his  lecture,  as  well  as  of  some  of 
Mrs  Hayes's  brilliant  performances,  such  as  riding  a  horse 
without  any  bridle  or  reins  whatever  over  some  big  jumps.' 

Riding  over  fences,  especially  without  reins,  in  a  small 
school,  where  one  is  continually  on  the  turn,  is  a  far  severer 
test  of  firmness  of  seat  than  going  over  an  ordinary  *  country.' 
Also,  jumping  in  cold  blood  tries  the  horse's  staunchness 
much  more  highly  than  negotiating  obstacles  under  the  ex- 
citement of  company  or  of  the  music  of  the  hounds.  To 
show  how  well  both  horse  and  rider  knew  their  work,  I  used 
to  put  up,  in  the  centre  of  the  school,  a  gate  4  feet  9  inches 
high  and  only  9  feet  long  without  wings  of  any  kind.  My 
wife  would  then  canter  Gustave  up  to  it,  and  as  he  was  in 
the  act  of  taking  off,  she  would  drop  the  reins  on  his  neck, 
and  keep  her  seat  without  the  slightest  movement  in  the 
saddle,  while  the  grey  gelding  cleared  the  obstacle  in  his 
usual  clever  style.  I  would  recommend  any  man  who  wishes 
to  know  if  he  can  ride  over  fences  without  hanging  on  by 


Charlie  Ward.  321 

the  reins,  to  try  this  feat.  I  need  hardly  point  out  the  great 
advantage  of  teaching  a  horse  to  jump  in  cold  blood  any- 
thing within  his  compass,  to  which  he  may  be  put  by  his 
rider.  Hunters,  for  instance,  that  will  leap  kindly  only  in 
company  or  when  hounds  are  running,  are  not  more  than 
half-trained  ;  for  in  the  event  of  their  rider  being  thrown  out 
of  a  run,  or  wishing  to  join  the  pack  by  taking  a  straight 
line  across  country,  the  reluctant  one,  when  left  to  himself, 
might  get  '  pounded '  at  any  moment.  Firm  retention  of 
seat  by  a  lady,  without  holding  on  by  the  reins  when  going 
over  a  big  fence,  is  easy,  provided  she  has  knowledge  and 
a  sufficiency  of  practice,  which,  in  ordinary  cases,  need  not 
be  more  than  that  which  could  be  obtained  in  eight  or  nine 
lessons  given,  according  to  our  methods,  by  a  competent 
teacher.  A  man's  seat,  in  the  usual  form  of  hunting-saddle, 
is  so  much  weaker  than  that  of  a  lady  in  a  side-saddle  that 
it  would  take  him  as  many  months,  if  not  years,  to  attain 
a  like  proficiency. 

With  a  book  full  of  flattering  press  cuttings  about  her 
book  and  her  riding,  my  wife  felt  quite  happy,  for  the  time 
being. 

I  think  I  am  right  in  saying  that  the  Wards  are  the  most 
accomplished  driving  family  in  England.  The  father,  old 
'  Charlie '  Ward,  the  famous  '  Whip  of  the  West/  and  his 
brother  Harry  are  probably  the  last  two  representatives  of 
the  old  '  Mail '  coachmen.  His  first  engagement  was  with  the 
Norwich  and  Ipswich  Mail  between  London  and  Colchester, 
when  he  was  only  seventeen  years  old.  For  seven  years  he 
drove  the  '  Quicksilver/  the  Devonport  Mail,  which  was  the 
fastest  one  of  its  time,  sixty  miles  a  night  without  an  accident 
After  that  he  drove  the  Brighton  Day  Mail,  the  '  Telegraph ' 
between  Exeter  and  Ilminster  ;  another  '  Telegraph '  between 
Devonport  and  London  ;  the  *  Tally- Ho  ! '  between  London 
and  Truro;  and  others.  Though  over  eighty  years  of  age, 
he  is  as  capable  a  whip  as  ever.  Frank,  the  eldest  son,  is 
a  thorough  workman,  and  is  unrivalled  in  showing  a  four-in- 

x 


322  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

hand  team  to  advantage.  During  the  first  horse  show  at 
Olympia  in  1887  (the  Jubilee  Year),  he  was  asked  by  the 
management  to  give  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  other  members 
of  the  Royal  Family  an  exhibition  of  driving  with  a  team 
of  bays  which  the  Wards  had  entered.  When  the  ring  was 
cleared,  he  gave  a  very  fine  show,  and  did  several  times  the 
figure  of  eight,  which  requires  a  considerable  amount  of  skill 
to  perform  properly  in  a  small  space.  As  he  passed  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  he  raised  his  hand  to  the  brim  of  his  hat, 
dropped  the  point  of  his  whip  behind  his  right  shoulder  by 
loosening  the  grip  of  the  finger,  and  took  off  his  hat.  This 
neat  method  of  making  his  bow  produced  quite  as  great  an 
impression  on  the  spectators  as  did  his  admirable  driving. 
His  team  got  first  prize,  beating  two  capital  ones  which  be- 
longed to  King,  the  Piccadilly  dealer,  and  which  were  tooled 
by  those  two  crack  coachmen,  Mr  Beckett  and  Mr  M'Adam. 
The  winners  were  an  extraordinary  level  lot  of  short-legged 
cobby  bays.  They  were  real  coach  horses,  and  fine  goers. 
In  1893,  Frank  also  won  the  first  prize  at  the  Rich- 
mond Horse  Show  with  Mr  Fred.  Gooch's  showy  team  of 
skewbalds.  He  gave  then  an  exhibition  similar  to  the  one 
at  Olympia.  Both  at  the  Hall  and  at  Richmond,  Mr 
Butcher  gave  a  very  clever  exhibition  of  tandem-driving. 
The  Wards  have  a  big  business  in  teaching  driving.  The 
sons  do  the  most  of  the  work  ;  though  some  of  the  pupils, 
especially  those  who  are  Americans,  among  whom  the  Wards 
have  a  large  following,  insist  on  having  old  Charlie  Ward  to 
impart  to  them  the  practice  and  traditions  of  the  road. 

Mr  Gooch,  whose  name  I  have  just  mentioned,  is  one  of 
the  best  known  figures  in  the  horse  world.  He  lives  at 
Windsor,  where  he  has  a  small  but  select  stable  of  horses 
and  a  private  riding-school,  in  which  he  '  makes '  the  faultless 
prize  winners,  for  which  he  is  famous  at  all  the  principal  horse 
shows.  At  Dublin  in  1893  he  was  first  in  the  Hacks  and 
Roadsters ;  first  in  double  harness,  tandem  and  single 
harness  ;  and  first  and  second  in  the  Champion  Class.  He 


o 

O 


Mr  F.  V.  Gooch.  325 

trains  his  jumpers  on  the  same  ground  at.  Ascot  as  Ben  Land 
used  to  train.  He  well  deserves  the  reputation  of  being 
the  best  dressed  and  best  'turned  out'  man  either  on  a 
horse  or  on  the  box  seat  of  a  coach  in  England,  and  is 
consequently  an  object  of  envy  to  all  the  young  Guardsmen 
who  follow  the  Windsor  Drag  Hounds,  with  which  he  always 
takes  a  prominent  place.  He  is  a  fine  horseman  'between 
the  flags,'  as  well  as  in  the  hunting  field,  and  is  particularly 
good  in  showing  high-class  park  hacks  of  his  own  breaking. 
One  of  his  last  wins  was  the  Drag  Hunt  Cup  this  year  at 
Windsor  on  May  Morn.  His  first  love  was  pony  racing,  in 
the  days  when  Sally  Brass  and  Deuce  of  Diamonds  were 
unrivalled  in  their  class.  Coming  home  from  hunting  about 
eighteen  years  ago  poor  George  Fordham,  who  was  very  fond 
of  a  good  pony,  offered  to  back  a  pony  he  had  against  any 
other  little  one  in  the  world.  Mr  Gooch,  who  was  present, 
accepted  the  challenge  for  three  matches,  at  £2$  each  on 
the  flat,  over  a  country  and  over  hurdles,  on  behalf  of  Deuce 
of  Diamonds,  who  made  such  an  example  of  Fordham's 
pony  in  the  first  race,  that  Mr  Gooch  received  forfeit  for 
the  other  two.  Among  all  the  good  ponies  I  have  known, 
such  as  Gamecock,  Skittles,  Lord  Clyde,  Maythorn  and 
Sylvia,  I  have  never  met  any  I  liked  so  much  as  Deuce  of 
Diamonds.  Mr  Gooch  has  owned  Jack  Frost,  Papyrus,  Red 
Enamel,  Bringari,  Wisdom,  May  Morn,  and  many  others. 

Among  the  gentlemen  who  came  to  our  lectures  on  side- 
saddle riding,  was  Mr  Fred.  Allen,  who  used  to  own  the  large 
riding-school  which  is  in  Seymour  Place,  W.,  and  which  he 
sold  to  Mr  Haines.  Mr  Allen's  father,  Mr  John  Allen,  built 
this  manege,  and  also  wrote,  in  1825,  Modern  Riding,  in 
which  the  system  of  side-saddle  equitation,  before  M.  Pellier 
invented  the  third  crutch,  is  described.  In  those  days,  high 
school  riding  was  diligently  cultivated  in  England,  and  as 
Mr  John  Allen  was  at  the  head  of  his  profession  in  London, 
his  manege  was  attended  by  all  the  best  people,  and  he 
made,  by  his  great  ability  as  a  teacher,  an  ample  fortune. 


326  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

After  his  death,  his  son  proved  to  be  a  worthy  successor, 
and  has  certainly  been  one  of  the  most  distinguished  riding- 
masters  we  have  had  in  England  for  the  last  fifty  years.  He 
had  the  honour  of  teaching  the  Empress  of  Austria  and  a 
great  number  of  royal  and  imperial  princes  and  princesses. 
Although  he  has  retired  from  active  work  now,  he  is  often 
called  to  instruct  members  of  the  imperial  family  in  Austria, 
where  he  is  a  great  favourite.  He  is  a  thorough  good  horse- 
man, and  is  a  man  of  charming  manners  and  great  tact. 

After  we  had  finished  our  series  of  lectures,  we  received  so 
many  applications  from  ladies  for  lessons,  that  we  thought  it 
advisable  to  make  an  arrangement  with  the  Wards  for  the  hire 
of  their  school  at  the  hours  required.  As  we  charged  a 
guinea  a  lesson,  our  clientele  was  composed  chiefly  of  wealthy 
people.  The  progress  made  by  our  pupils  under  our  novel 
method  of  instruction  was  so  remarkable  that  I  would  not 
venture  to  say  how  fast  it  was,  if  I  were  not  able  to  give  sup- 
porting evidence,  which  is  furnished  by  the  following  extract 
from  the  Queen  (i;th  June,  1893) :  '  I  made  the  acquaintance 
of  the  authoress  of  The  Horsewoman  one  morning  in  Ward's 
manege,  where  I  went  to  see  two  little  friends  taking  their  rid- 
ing lesson  from  her.  It  was  a  novel  and  pretty  sight.  Mrs 
Hayes  has  inaugurated  a  method  of  instruction  hitherto  un- 
practised, and  which  must  recommend  itself  to  anyone  who 
sees  the  extraordinary  progress  which  accompanies  it.  The 
children  are  dressed  in  gymnastic  costume,  and  it  was  the  third 
time  only  that  they  had  been  put  on  a  horse — a  large  horse  it 
was  too,  and  as  patient  and  kindly  as  it  is  possible  to  be. 
The  first  thing  Mrs  Hayes  teaches  is  how  to  sit.  By  the 
pupils  wearing  no  skirt,  she  can  see  at  a  glance  whether  the 
position  of  the  legs  is  right,  and  this  is  all  important. 

'  By  the  time  I  saw  the  children  they  were  galloping  gaily 
round  and  round,  with  radiant  faces  and  flying  hair,  sitting 
better  into  the  saddle,  even  at  this  early  stage,  than  many  a 
woman  who  considers  herself  a  complete  rider.  They  are  not 
allowed  to  hold  the  reins  ;  the  hands  lie  in  the  lap,  holding 


Teaching  Ladies  to  ride.  327 

the  whip  across  the  knees,  which  accustoms  them  from  the 
first  to  keep  their  hands  low,  besides  teaching  them  to  keep 
their  seat  without  "  riding  the  bridle  "  as  so  many  people  do. 
The  horse  is  driven  with  long  reins,  like  those  used  in  break- 
ing by  Captain  Hayes,  and  managed  by  him  with  the  dex- 
terity of  a  circus  master.  After  a  few  turns  at  a  canter, 
wicker  hurdles  are  put  up,  and  to  my  astonishment,  the 
children,  without  the  slightest  fear  or  hesitation,  settled 
themselves  down,  leaned  well  back,  and  popped  over  without 
raising  their  hands  or  altering  the  position  of  their  legs. 
They  had  been  over  the  same  hurdles  at  the  second  lesson, 
and  too  much  can  hardly  be  said  in  praise  of  a  system  that 
has  such  results  to  offer  in  so  short  a  space  of  time.' 

When  we  got  our  pupils  secure  in  their  seat  by  balance 
and  grip  alone,  we  used  to  give  them  the  reins,  and  teach 
them  how  to  manage  the  horse.  For  any  average  young 
lady  who  had  never  been  on  a  horse  before,  we  found  a 
dozen  lessons  amply  sufficient  to  make  her  ride  in  a  graceful 
and  workmanlike  manner  on  the  flat  or  over  fences,  of  course 
without  any  '  bumping,'  *  screwing '  or  hanging  on  to  the  horse's 
head.  We  had  several  young  and  married  ladies  who  had 
been  given  up  as  hopeless  by  riding-masters.  They  were, 
naturally,  nervous  and  were  painfully  wanting  in  confidence. 
As  soon  as  they  understood  that  I  had  entire  command  of 
their  mount,  and  that  it  was  absolutely  under  my  control, 
they  felt  relieved  of  the  serious  responsibility  of  managing 
the  horse,  and  were  then  able  to  devote  all  their  attention  to 
acquiring  a  strong  seat  Having  obtained  that  great  requisite 
for  success  in  the  saddle,  they  readily  learned  the  use  of  the 
reins  and  the  whip  (as  an  aid).  As  one  cannot  manage  the 
reins  properly  without  having  a  good  seat,  and  as  the  temp- 
tation to  hang  on  by  the  reins  is  well  nigh  irresistible  so  long 
as  the  seat  is  insecure,  it  is  surely  advisable  to  prevent  the 
pupil  acquiring  the  fatal  habit  of  '  riding  the  bridle,'  by  not 
allowing  her  to  touch  the  reins,  until  she  feels  absolutely 
confident  that  nothing,  except  the  bursting  of  the  girths  and 


328  Among  Men  and  Ho rses. 

surcingle  can  displace  her  from  the  saddle.  I  need  hardly 
remind  my  readers  that  I  am  here  referring  to  pupils  who 
wish  to  learn  in  a  short  time  to  ride,  and  not  to  girls  that  can 
acquire  the  art  by  years  of  practice.  At  the  same  time,  I 
confidently  assert  that  my  wife  and  I  could  teach  in  a  fort- 
night young  ladies  to  ride  a  great  deal  better  than  those  who 
have  ridden  all  their  lives  without  any  special  training.  We 
must  remember  that  ladies,  unlike  men,  ride  the  saddle  and 
not  the  horse,  and  as  their  side  seat  is  a  wholly  artificial  one, 
practice  alone  is  not  sufficient  to  obtain  grace  and  skill.  To 
explain  my  meaning  with  reference  to  artificial  and  natural 
exercises,  I  may  point  to  the  fact  that  a  sprinter  may  be  an 
exceedingly  graceful  and  fast  runner  without  teaching  ;  but 
that  no  one  has  ever  become  a  dancer  of  great  merit,  without 
long  and  serious  training.  Hunting  ladies  might  say  that 
my  pupil  of  fourteen  days,  however  well  she  might  stick 
on  her  horse  and  handle  him,  would  be  certain  to  make  a 
poor  show  in  the  hunting  field  from  lack  of  an  instructed  c  eye 
for  a  country,'  and  from  not  understanding  '  pace.'  To  this 
I  may  reply  that  riding  is  only  one  of  the  component  parts  of 
hunting,  and  that  many  good  men  and  women  to  hounds  have 
been  extremely  poor  riders.  In  the  same  way,  some  of  our 
best  jockeys,  and  even  some  good  chase  riders,  have  been 
indifferent  horsemen.  I  may  here  remind  my  readers  of  the 
old  saying  that  we  should  ride  to  hunt,  and  not  hunt  to  ride. 

In  London,  as,  I  believe,  elsewhere,  competition  has  re- 
duced school  charges  so  much,  that  there  is  but  little  profit 
to  be  gained  from  the  teaching  of  riding.  As  a  rule,  the  pro- 
prietors are  content,  for  a  slight  increase  for  the  hire  of  the 
horse  or  horses,  to  add  the  services  of  the  riding-master,  who 
has  to  act  the  part  of  groom  as  well  as  instructor  on  from  305. 
to  two  guineas  a  week.  These  men  have  been  usually  army 
rough-riders,  and  rarely  know  anything  beyond  what  they 
have  been  taught  at  Canterbury  or  Woolwich.  Consequently 
they  teach  ladies  and  civilians  to  ride  with  one  hand  ;  for  the 
very  funny  reason  that  soldiers,  who  are  supposed  to  have 


Riding- Ma  sters.  329 

their  right  hand  occupied  in  holding  a  weapon,  ride  in  that 
manner.  If  our  finest  steeplechase  riders  find  that  they 
need  the  use  of  both  hands  on  the  reins,  how  much  more 
would  ladies  require  that  assistance.  Besides,  it  is  easier  for 
a  woman  to  sit  square,  when  she  has  both  hands  on  the  reins, 
than  when  she  has  only  one.  All  the  riding-masters  I  have 
met>  firmly  believe  that  they  are  competent  to  teach  riding 
to  ladies  in  every  stage  of  proficiency  ;  and  yet  we  never 
encounter  riding-mistresses  who  assert  their  ability  to  instruct 
men  in  the  art  of  sitting  on  a  horse.  After  the  lady  pupil  has 
got  over  the  first  difficulties  about  her  seat,  length  of  stirrup, 
position  and  action  of  her  legs,  etc.,  she  will  be  ready  to  learn 
from  a  man  how  to  manage  her  horse,  regulate  his  paces,  and 
make  him  obey  her  wishes  with  precision  and  intelligence  ; 
but  up  to  that  point  his  counsels  are  of  but  little  value 
compared  to  those  of  a  competent  woman,  who  knows  from 
personal  experience  what  he,  in  most  cases,  talks  about  theo- 
retically, or  at  second  hand.  For  outside  work,  a  riding- 
mistress  has  the  disadvantage  of  her  professional  brother,  in 
not  being  able  to  help  her  pupil  in  difficulty  as  well  as  he 
could  do.  Therefore,  for  thorough  efficiency,  the  staff  of 
every  riding-school  in  which  ladies  are  taught,  should  include 
a  riding-mistress  as  well  as  a  riding-master.  Here  again 
comes  the  question  of  cost.  If,  however,  persons  object  to 
pay  a  fair  price  for  good  instruction,  they  have  only  them- 
selves to  blame,  when  they  or  their  children  fail  to  learn 
properly.  This  parsimony,  as  regards  riding,  is  idiotic  in 
one's  own  case,  and  culpable  in  that  of  one's  children,  who 
from  ignorance  or  wrong  teaching,  will  be  far  more  liable  to 
suffer  from  accidents  than  if  they  had  been  instructed  in  a 
capable  manner.  This  miserable  economy,  which  also  ex- 
tends to  horses,  saddle  gear,  and  habits,  has  been  the  cause 
of  many  a  young  lady  losing  her  life. 

My  readers  may,  not  unlikely,  ask  why  I  have  dwelt  so 
exclusively  on  riding  from  a  woman's  point  of  view?  My 
reason  for  having  done  so  is  that  it  is  far  less  understood 


3  3 o  A mong  Men  and  Horses. 

than  cross-saddle  riding,  about  which  there  is  but  little  new 
to  be  said.  Although  from  the  artificial  nature  of  a  woman's 
seat,  improvements  in  side-saddles  and  consequently  in  femi- 
nine equitation  are  constantly  being  made,  no  great  ad- 
vance has  been  wrought  by  men  in  riding  during  the  last  half 
century.  I  do  not  think  that  if  Allen  M'Donogh,  Frank 
Butler,  and  Baucher  came  to  earth  again,  they  would  have 
much  to  learn  in  their  respective  styles  of  riding,  from  the 
best  professionals  of  the  present  day. 

I  am  aware  that  many  persons  hold  in  contempt  all  work 
done  in  a  riding-school.  While  fully  admitting  that  the  final 
and  crucial  test  of  the  training  of  a  man,  woman,  or  horse, 
is  his  performance  in  the  open,  and,  I  would  almost  add, 
over  a  country  ;  I  must  say  that  the  first  lessons  can  be  given 
far  more  effectively  in  a  manege  than  outside,  where  the  pupil, 
whether  human  or  equine,  is  far  less  under  the  instructor's 
control  and  guidance  than  in  a  school. 

Although  London  riding-masters  are  no  doubt  well 
acquainted  with  military  riding,  according  to  the  English 
red  book,  I  have  never  yet  met  one  of  the  ex-rough-rider 
class  (I  am  not  referring  to  men  like  Captain  Fitzgerald  or 
Mr  Fred  Allen)  who  understood  anything  about  high  school 
riding,  steeplechase  or  flat  race  riding,  or  horsebreaking, 
which  is  an  art  that,  in  my  opinion,  every  riding-master 
ought  to  know.  Nothing  looks,  or  is,  more  incompetent 
than  the  exhibition  of  ignorance,  by  such  a  teacher,  of  the 
proper  way  to  make  a  horse  steady  or  obedient,  there  and 
then,  when  the  animal  '  plays  up '  with  a  pupil.  But  what 
can  you  expect  from  a  35s.-a-week  man?  Baron  de 
Curnieu  in  his  Lemons  Hippiques  says: — '  //  nous  faudrait  un 
professeur  d' equitation  qui  peut  nous  enseigner  en  meme  temps 
ranatomie  comparee!  That's  all  very  well ;  but  one  would 
have  to  pay  him  accordingly.  This  puts  me  in  mind  of  a 
reply  which  a  Mahammadan  servant  of  mine  made  to  me  when 
I  found  fault  with  him  for  having  failed  to  exercise  special 
forethought  respecting  some  business  which  I  had  given  him 


Side-Saddles.  331 

to  do.  '  Sir,'  said  he,  '  you  should  remember  that  I  am  only 
a  ^2-a-month  servant.  If  I  were  as  clever  as  you  expect 
me  to  be,  you  would  have  to  pay  me  at  least  .£30  a 
month.' 

The  craze  for  cheap  riding  lessons  is  not  confined  to 
England.  James  Fillis  told  me  that  on  one  occasion  when 
he  had  created  a  very  favourable  impression  by  his  high 
school  riding  in  Berlin,  several  ladies  of  the  Prussian  capital 
asked  him  to  give  them  riding  lessons ;  but  that  on  his  men- 
tioning that  his  terms  were  eight  marks  (shillings)  a  lesson, 
they  all  with  one  accord  expressed  their  sorrow  and  went 
away. 

Although  our  riding  lessons  did  not  bring  us  in  much 
money,  for  only  a  few  people  will  pay  highly  for  good  quality 
after  having  been  accustomed  to  obtain  an  inferior  article 
cheaply ;  they  taught  both  of  us  a  great  deal.  Long  before 
we  commenced  them,  I  was  aware  of  the  truth  of  the  old 
saying  that  one  never  knows  a  subject  well,  until  one  has 
had  some  experience  in  teaching  it.  We  were  of  course 
delighted  to  get  this  opportunity  of  increasing  our  know- 
ledge, and  we  stored  up  the  results  of  our  observations  for 
use  in  new  editions,  as  well  as  on  future  occasions.  One 
morning  in  the  riding-school,  I  remarked  that  my  wife,  while 
going  over  some  jumps  and,  consequently,  while  pressing  her 
leg  against  the  leaping-head  of  her  saddle,  kept  the  flat  of  her 
knee  away  from  the  flap  of  the  saddle,  instead  of  close  against 
it  I  could  see  this,  because  she  was  riding  without  a  skirt 
at  the  time.  When  she  had  finished,  I  asked  her  why  she 
rode  in  this  manner,  and  remarked  that  she  would  be  firmer 
and  '  squarer '  in  her  seat,  if  she  would  bring  her  knee  close  to 
the  horse's  side.  She  replied  that  what  I  said  was  quite  true ; 
but  that  the  curve  of  the  leaping-head  forced  the  knee  away 
from  the  flap  of  the  saddle,  when  the  leg  was  pressed  against 
the  leaping-head,  and  that  this  was  a  failing  inherent  in  all 
leaping-heads.  I  told  her  that  I  would  try  to  remedy  this 
defect,  and  by  a  good  deal  of  thinking,  many  experiments 


332  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

and  the  aid  of  that  admirable  mechanician,  Mr  Weston,  I 
brought  out  a  new  kind  of  leaping-head,  which  I  have 
patented  and  which  I  believe  has  a  big  future.  I  need  only 
say  that  it  answers  its  purpose,  and  that  it  greatly  increases 
the  rider's  strength  of  grip,  without  any  disadvantage  to 
neutralise  in  the  slightest  its  usefulness.  Having  fully  tested 
it,  my  wife  thinks  that  it  quite  doubles  a  rider's  firmness  in 
the  saddle.  It  is  as  much  my  wife's  invention  as  mine ;  for 
without  her  counsel  I  could  not  have  thought  it  out.  I  may 
explain  to  those  of  my  readers  who  are  not  conversant  with 
saddle  gear,  that  the  leaping-head  is  the  horn  or  crutch  which 
is  made  to  take  the  pressure  off  the  rider's  left  leg,  just  above 
the  knee.  Not  to  be  behind  hand  in  the  inventing  line,  my 
wife  devised  an  admirable  safety  skirt,  which  she  has  had 
patented,  and  has  given  it  to  Messrs  E.  Tautz  &  Sons,  of 
485  Oxford  Street,  to  sell.  It  possesses  the  great  advantage 
of  looking  like  an  ordinary  skirt  when  the  wearer  is  on  foot, 
and  being  absolutely  safe  when  the  lady  is  in  the  saddle. 
She  and  I  thought,  at  first,  that  its  graceful  and  decent 
appearance  when  on  foot  would  be  a  great  charm  in  the  eyes 
of  ladies.  We  begin  to  doubt  this  on  seeing  the  popularity 
enjoyed  by  certain  safety  skirts  which,  when  the  wearer  is 
dismounted,  give  a  very  liberal  view  of  the  limbs,  especially, 
when  viewed  from  behind.  Can  it  be  that  there  are  ladies 
who  like  to  afford  this  gratuitous  show  to  the  public  ?  My 
wife,  in  conjunction  with  Messrs  Hampson  &  Scott,  who 
are  large  wholesale  manufacturers  of  bits,  stirrup-irons,  saddles 
and  harness  at  Walsall,  has  also  patented  a  saddle  with  a 
movable  upper  crutch,  over  which  the  right  leg  is  placed.  The 
invention  was  the  result  of  my  wife's  idea  and  of  Mr  Scott's 
mechanical  skill.  As  there  is  only  one  place  in  which  a  rider 
can  sit  comfortably  in  a  side-saddle ;  it  follows  that  the  length 
of  the  rider's  leg  will  determine  the  distance  of  the  upper 
crutch  from  it.  Hence,  a  saddle  that  will  fit  a  tall  woman, 
will  be  uncomfortable  or  altogether  unsuitable  for  a  small  one, 
and  vice  versa.  In  England  it  is  easy  to  get  a  saddle  made 


Side-  Saddles.  333 

to  order;  but  as  saddle-trees  are  not  constructed  in  India, 
China,  or  any  of  our  colonies,  I  feel  certain  that  in  these 
countries,  saddles  of  this  movable  upper  crutch  type  have  a 
great  future  before  them  ;  for,  by  a  very  simple  arrangement, 
the  crutch  is  made  to  move  forward  or  backward  and  to  be 
clamped  at  any  required  distance  from  the  cantle,  which,  I 
need  hardly  say,  is  the  rearmost,  portion  of  the  saddle-tree. 
In  the  '  trade,'  the  crutch  to  which  I  have  given  the  name  of 
upper  crutch,  is  called  the  '  near  head  ; '  and  the  now  obsolete 
one  which  used  to  be  on  the  off  side,  the  '  off  head.'  As  the 
leaping-head  is  also  on  the  near  side,  I  think  the  term  '  upper 
crutch/  or  '  upright  crutch '  is  less  liable  to  cause  confusion 
than  the  trade  expression.  Some  persons  use  the  word 
'  pommel '  for  '  crutch,'  which  is  in  no  way  a  pommel,  accord- 
ing to  the  modern  use  of  that  part.  Although  the  word 
'  horn '  is  quite  as  suitable  as  '  crutch/  it  is  rarely  employed. 
I  may  mention  that  it  is  the  German  equivalent  for  the  crutch 
of  a  side-saddle. 

While  I  am  on  the  subject  of  side-saddles,  I  cannot  help 
alluding  to  the  terribly  dangerous  practice  of  ladies  riding 
with  a  man's  ordinary  stirrup  or,  worse  still,  with  a  padded 
*  Victoria  stirrup '  which  is  unconnected  with  a  safety  bar. 
Not  long  ago,  there  was  a  case,  one  of  many  others,  in  which 
a  young  lady  on  being  thrown  from  her  horse  was  fatally 
injured  by  being  dragged  by  the  stirrup.  At  the  coroner's 
inquest,  there  was  a  good  deal  of  evidence  taken  as  to  the 
pony  she  was  riding  being  quiet  or  not ;  but  no  one  at  the 
inquest  made  any  inquiry  as  to  the  nature  of  the  stirrup, 
which  was  the  cause  of  a  very  ordinary  accident  having  had 
such  a  horrible  result.  The  best  rider  in  the  world  mounted 
on  the  quietest  horse  in  existence,  might  by  accident  get  a  fall ; 
but  the  danger  of  being  dragged  is  absolutely  preventable. 
The  precautions  which  ought  to  have  been  taken  for  the 
young  lady's  safety  had  evidently  been  neglected  ;  probably 
through  ignorance. 

We   were   fortunate   to   make   the   acquaintance   of    Mr 


334  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

Wilton,  who  is  by  far  the  largest  manufacturer  of  side-saddles 
in  England.  He  greatly  helped  us  by  the  experiments  he 
was  always  ready  to  carry  out  for  us,  and  by  giving  us  the 
results  of  his  unrivalled  experience.  He  is  the  fourth  genera- 
tion of  saddlers  in  his  family ;  and,  although  he  has  made  an 
ample  fortune,  he  has  determined  that  his  two  sons  will  be 
the  fifth  generation  in  this  trade.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  meet 
a  man  like  him  who  knows  his  business  and  takes  a  pride 
in  it 

Very  long  ago  it  used  to  be  a  mystery  to  me  how  a 
saddler  who  had  no  workshop  was  able  to  execute  orders 
which  required  the  employment  of  skilled  labour.  I  subse- 
quently found  out  these  men  have  their  work  done  for  them, 
except  trifling  repairs,  by  wholesale  houses,  which  in,  pro- 
bably, nineteen  out  of  twenty  cases,  belong  to  Walsall.  As 
the  flaunting  of  a  scarlet  rag  infuriates  the  proverbial  bull,  so 
does  the  mention,  by  a  layman,  of  the  name  of  the  busy 
Staffordshire  city  make  mad  the  ordinary  workshopless 
saddler.  Honestly  speaking,  the  surmise  would  be  a  com- 
pliment ;  for  wholesale  houses  like  Hampson  &  Scott, 
Barnsby,  and  Christie  turn  out  far  finer  work  than  any 
ordinary  retailer  could  produce,  even  if  he  had  men  under 
him.  The  saddler  without  a  workshop,  if  in  London,  will,  as 
a  rule,  admit  that  he  sends  his  work  '  out1 ;  but  not  to  Walsall. 
He  airily  explains  that  his  workpeople  prefer  to  labour  in 
their  homes  than  to  toil  at  a  bench  in  his  shop.  He  con- 
cedes them  this  privilege,  and  states  that  they  work  under 
his  personal  supervision.  '  His  workmen  '  are  of  course  those 
of  the  wholesale  house.  Owing  to  their  immense  facilities, 
the  large  Walsall  firms  work  with  extraordinary  economy 
and  expedition.  For  instance,  they  can  supply  the  retailer 
with  a  saddle  complete,  for  less  money  than  he  could  cover 
and  stuff  it  in  his  own  shop.  Besides  this,  an  order  received 
by  the  morning  post  for,  say,  a  hundred  sets  of  harness  can 
be  executed  during  the  day  and  the  goods  dispatched  the 
same  evening!  I  have  no  intention  of  'giving  away'  the 


WalsalL  335 

retail  saddler  who  is  workshopless  ;  but  if  he  charges  me  for 
a  job  as  much  as  Champion  &  Wilton,  Whippy  &  Steggles, 
Langdon,  Harries  of  Shrewsbury  or  any  other  saddler  who 
gets  his  work  done  in  his  own  premises  would  do,  I  would, 
not  unnaturally,  feel  aggrieved.  I  would  certainly  prefer  to 
give  an  order  to  a  firm  whose  manager  would  have  my  work 
done  under  his  own  eyes,  than  to  trust  to  a  man  who  would 
have  to  write  to  someone  else  and  tell  him  what  I  wanted. 
When  it  is  a  question  of  buying  a  ready-made  saddle,  bridle 
or  set  of  harness,  I  don't  care  where  it  has  been  manufactured, 
so  long  as  it  suits  me. 

While  on  a  visit  to  Mr  Scott  of  Messrs  Hampson  &  Scott, 
we  spent  three  very  pleasant  days  at  Walsall,  where  we  had 
the  best  possible  opportunities  of  seeing  leather,  bits,  buckles, 
hooks,  stirrup-irons,  hames,  clipping  machines,  saddles,  har- 
ness, etc.,  in  every  stage  of  preparation.  What  struck  me 
most  was  the  excellence  of  the  work  turned  out ;  although 
economy  was  closely  observed  as  far  as  could  be  done  legiti- 
mately. One  of  the  greatest  labour-saving  inventions  ever 
discovered  is  that  of  annealing,  which  is  a  process  of  gradu- 
ally cooling  iron  castings  which  have  been  heated,  so  that 
their  texture  becomes  greatly  toughened.  I  may  mention 
that  ordinary  cast  iron  is  so  brittle  that  it  is  liable  to  break 
almost  like  glass  if  it  is  struck  by,  or  let  fall  on,  a  hard  sub- 
stance. After  being  annealed  it  is  called  malleable  iron,  and 
then  occupies,  as  regards  toughness,  a  position  which  is  about 
midway  between  cast  iron  and  wrought  iron.  Before  the 
process  of  annealing  was  known,  iron  buckles  had  to  be 
made  of  wrought  iron,  and  were  consequently  very  expensive. 
Now  they  are  all,  practically  speaking,  of  malleable  iron, 
which  fairly  meets  the  requirements  of  the  case  in  this 
instance.  During  the  Franco-German  war,  very  large  orders 
for  girth  buckles  for  the  French  cavalry  were  sent  to  Walsall 
by  men  who  were  so  unscrupulous  that  to  obtain  all  possible 
profit  out  of  their  speculation,  they  contracted  only  for  cast- 
iron  buckles,  the  large  majority  of  which  must  have  broken 


336  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

in  two  the  first  time  any  strain  was  put  on  them.  The 
Walsall  men  believe  that  much  of  the  inefficiency  of  the 
French  cavalry  during  that  war  was  owing  to  the  bursting  of 
these  wretched  buckles.  Although  the  process  of  annealing 
greatly  adds  to  the  strength  of  cast  iron,  it  cannot  diminish 
the  liability  of  cast  iron  to  contain  bubbles,  formed  by  escap- 
ing gas,  distributed  through  its  substance.  This  tendency  to 
contract  these  bubbles,  from  the  weakening  effect  of  their 
presence,  renders  even  annealed  iron  wholly  unsuitable  for 
bits.  It  is  however  largely  used  for  their  manufacture,  espe- 
cially for  Liverpool  bits,  curbs  and  Pelhams,  and  with  many 
deplorable  accidents  as  results  of  this  policy  of  '  cutting  down  ' 
prices.  Cast  nickel  bits  are  for  this  reason  also  unsafe. 
No  bit  which  will  not  stand  being  well  hammered  when  in  a 
cold  state,  is  fit  to  trust  one's  life  to  when  on  or  behind  a 
horse.  In  cheap  side-saddles,  the  leaping-head  iron  is 
usually  made  of  malleable,  instead  of  wrought,  iron.  This  is 
another  terribly  dangerous  economy  which  should  be  made 
penal. 

Being  in  town  during  the  season,  we  rode  a  good  deal  in 
the  Row,  and  saw  there  the  worst  broken  horses  and  the 
feeblest  riders,  probably,  in  the  world.  Among  other  nice 
people,  we  made  the  acquaintance  of  Lady  Dilke,  who,  on  the 
appearance  of  my  wife's  book,  The  Horsewoman,  wrote  from 
France,  where  she  was  staying,  a  very  kind  letter  of  encour- 
agement, and  hoped  that  we  would  call  on  her  when  she 
returned  to  London.  Lady  Dilke  rides  well  and  dearly  loves 
horses,  especially,  her  handsome  Arab,  Shihab.  With  all  her 
fondness  for  a  horse,  her  sympathies  are,  as  they  ought  to 
be,  even  more  strongly  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  suffering 
humanity. 

Among  many  other  horse  enthusiasts  to  whom  our 
lectures  on  riding  made  us  known,  were  Mr  and  Mrs 
Norman.  As  he  is  assistant  editor  of  the  Daily  Chronicle, 
that  paper  is  particularly  sound  in  its  reviews  of  books  on 
horses.  Mrs  Norman,  as  Miss  Dowie,  the  authoress  of  A 


Riding-School  Work.  337 

Girl  in  the  Carpathians,  is,  like  her  husband,  well  known  as 
a  clever  and  original  writer. 

All  through  this  winter  and  spring  I  industriously  availed 
myself  of  the  use  of  a  riding-school,  to  increase  my  knowledge 
of  school  breaking  and  riding. 


Photo,  by  Jl7.  Till,  Melton  Moivbray. 


CHAPTER     XXIV. 

Accident  to  Gustave — Ranelagh — Richmond — The  Duke  of  Cambridge — 
Management  of  Horse  Shows — Apathy  of  Londoners  to  Horse  Shows — 
A  Libel  Action — Berlin — Berliner  Tattersall — German  Riding  and  Break- 
ing— The  Thiergarten — Riding  in  Berlin — The  Points  of  the  Horse — Fillis 
and  Germinal — Circus  Renz — Melton  Mowbray — Lectures — Rugby — 
Yorkshire — Leicestershire — End. 

WE  had  hoped  to  have  Gustave  ready  for  the  jumping 
competitions  at  the  Agricultural  Hall ;  but  about  a 
month  before  that  event  came  off,  when  practising  him  over  a 
broad  water  jump,  he  overreached  badly  on  account  of  the  land- 
ing side  being  so  soft  from  the  infiltration  of  water,  that  he  could 
not  get  his  forefeet  quick  enough  out  of  the  sticky  ground  to 
avoid  an  accident  I  freely  admit  that  this  was  due  entirely 
to  my  carelessness  ;  for  no  one  knew  better  than  I  did,  that 

338 


The  Duke  of  Cambridge.  339 

horses  should  never  be  schooled  over  water,  or  over  any  kind 
of  fence  in  heavy  ground,  without  having  proper  boots  on  their 
legs.  In  fact,  I  had  always  prided  myself  on  having  devised 
an  admirable  schooling  boot  for  jumpers ;  but  as  I  had  mis- 
laid the  pair  I  had  generally  in  use,  I  neglected  to  get  another 
pair,  or  to  employ  a  bandage  with  a  strip  of  felt  to  protect 
the  back  tendons.  I  may  mention  that  it  is  a  good  plan  to 
lay  down  on  the  far  side  of  a  water  jump  of  this  kind,  strong 
wicker  hurdles  or  screens  covered  with  earth,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent the  animal's  feet  sinking  into  the  ground  on  landing. 
Although  the  wound  was  an  ugly  one  a  little  above  the 
fetlock,  Gustave  made  a  rapid  and  complete  recovery,  thanks 
to  dry  dressing  with  iodoform,  and  pressure  by  means  of 
cotton- wool  bandaging.  He  appeared  for  the  first  time  in  a 
jumping  competition  at  the  Ranelagh  Club  Horse  Show, 
where,  ridden  by  my  wife  in  a  field  of  over  twenty  competi- 
tors, he  was  second  to  Lufra,  who  has  been  one  of  the  most 
successful  show  jumpers  in  England.  I  may  mention  that 
Lufra  belongs  to  Mr  Fred.  Horton,  who  takes  a  great  deal 
of  interest  in  show  jumping,  Mr  Irving,  F.R.C.V.S.,  and  Mr 
Landsley,  both  of  whom  are  fine  horsemen,  ride  for  him  at 
competitions.  On  the  first  day  at  the  Richmond  Show, 
Gustave  was  footsore,  and  accordingly  jumped  reluctantly. 
Being  all  right  on  the  second  day,  he  fenced  in  beautifully 
clever  and  temperate  style ;  but  the  water  jump  was  so  short 
(laterally),  that  the  old  gelding,  seeing  the  turf  on  each  side 
of  him,  leaped  sideways  (as  any  intelligent  horse  would  have 
done)  and  got  disqualified.  For  this  reverse,  my  wife  had  the 
consolation  of  being  personally  complimented  on  her  seat  and 
hands  by  the  Duke  of  Cambridge,  who  came  up  to  where 
she  had  halted  Gustave,  and  told  her  that  he  had  never  seen  a 
lady  ride  better  over  fences  than  she  did,  and  that  he  was 
greatly  pleased  with  the  way  she  handled  her  horse,  and  with 
her  method  of  giving  him  a  loose  rein  when  jumping,  instead 
of  hanging  on  to  his  head,  as  many  riders  do.  The  Duke 
admired  Gustave,  especially  for  his  good  mouth ;  and  re- 


34-O  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

marked  to  her  that  it  was  always  a  pleasant  sight  to  see  a 
lady  riding  a  nice,  temperate  horse  in  a  snaffle,  and  particu- 
larly over  fences. 

To  my  thinking,  the  management  of  the  jumping  com- 
petitions both  at  the  Agricultural  Hall  and  at  Richmond  left 
much  to  be  desired.  The  first  blot  on  both  programmes  was 
the  rule  that  the  jumpers  had  to  be  entered  for  some  of  the 
other  classes,  so  as  to  qualify  them  to  take  part  in  the  leaping 
events.  This  was  nothing  less  than  an  attempt  at  trading  on 
the  sporting  feeling  of  the  owners  of  the  jumpers,  instead  of 
trying  to  encourage  it.  The  only  excuse  which  could  be  put 
forward  in  defence  of  this  unjust  tax  is  that  it  tends  to  keep 
out  horses  which  are  not  of  sufficient  quality  to  compete  in 
non-jumping  classes.  If  this  were  really  the  reason  for  fining 
an  owner  for  wanting  his  horse  to  jump,  the  committee  would 
much  more  effectively  accomplish  their  supposed  desire,  if 
they  were  to  exclude  from  the  jumping  competitions  all  horses 
which  did  not  come  up  to  their  standard  of  excellence,  whether 
as  hunters  or  hacks,  for  instance.  Of  course  they  would  not 
adopt  such  a  plan  ;  for  they  are  well  aware  that  the  leaping 
is  their  biggest  '  draw.'  To  be  consistent,  they  should  force 
all  horses  entered  for  non-jumping  prizes,  to  be  also  entered 
for  the  '  leps ' ;  but  for  that  flight  of  arbitrariness  they  have 
not  as  yet  attained  sufficient  hardihood.  At  the  most  of  these 
shows,  the  entrance  money  for  the  jumping  competitions  is  so 
high,  as  compared  to  the  value  of  the  prizes,  that  the  horses 
which  attract  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  gate  money,  compete 
as  a  rule  only  for  their  own  entry  fees. 

The  second  point  which  I  disliked  in  the  management  of 
the  leaping  events  at  Islington  and  at  Richmond  was  the 
absence  of  system  in  the  judging.  We  all  know  that  even  a 
bad  system  is  better  than  no  system  at  all.  No  hint  was 
given  to  the  competitors  as  to  the  necessary  requirements  for 
a  prize  winner.  Not  the  slightest  regard  was  paid  by  the 
judges  at  either  place  to  manners  or  style.  Jibing  brutes 
which  had  to  be  led  out,  took  prizes.  Impetuous  beasts  which 


Horse  Shows.  341 

had  to  be  pulled  up  into  a  walk  between  the  fences,  obtained 
ribbons.  Even  refusers  got  placed.  And  yet  the  slightest 
touch,  such  as  many  of  the  cleverest  and  safest  hunters  that 
ever  looked  through  a  bridle  would  always  give  to  a  wall,  if 
followed  by  the  displacement  of  even  a  wooden  brick,  entailed 
instant  disqualification.  In  all  these  competitions,  except,  of 
course,  when  there  was  only  one  obstacle,  as  at  the  big  stone 
wall  event  in  the  Dublin  Horse  Show,  no  horse  should  be 
given  a  prize,  unless  he  had  been  taken  round  at  a  canter  or 
well-collected  slow  gallop,  and  without  a  refusal.  I  am  here 
assuming,  as  I  think  I  have  a  right  to  do,  that  all  such  jump- 
ing enclosures  are  mimic  hunting  fields.  I  may  add  that  the 
rule  against  pulling  horses  up  between  the  jumps  is  strictly 
observed  at  Ball's  Bridge.  The  '  rapping '  of  a  gate  by  a 
horse  is  such  a  dangerous  experiment,  especially  if  the  gate 
happened  to  be  unfastened,  that  it  ought,  I  think,  to  be  a  bar 
to  success.  But  a  wall  is  different.  Other  things  being  equal ; 
the  horse  which  jumped  everything  clean  ought  undoubtedly 
to  be  awarded  the  prize  in  preference  to  one  that  chanced  any 
of  the  fences,  even  in  a  manner  that  could  cause  no  danger. 
As  horses  have  to  carry  a  rider  over  fences,  and  are  not 
judged  by  their  powers  of  jumping  when  at  liberty ;  the 
first  requirement  of  a  jumper  is  a  good  mouth;  the  second 
cleverness. 

The  awarding  of  prizes  to  so-called  hunters  which  have 
never  been  over  a  fence  is  funny.  An  equally  striking 
anomaly  is  that  of  judging  cart-horses  without  seeing  how 
they  pull  when  between  the  shafts.  It  seems  to  me  hardly 
right  that  a  horse  should  obtain  a  prize  as  a  hunter  unless 
he  was  able  to  jump  ;  or  as  a  cart-horse,  unless  he  could 
draw  a  load.  The  respective  tests  need  not  be  very  severe  ; 
but  at  least  they  should  ensure  the  fact  that  prize  winners 
are  entitled  to  the  designation  under  which  they  were  entered. 
I  need  hardly  mention  that  hacks  and  harness  horses  are  put 
through  their  '  facings ' :  why,  then,  should  hunters  and  cart- 
horses be  exempt  ?  Having  asked  this  question,  I  shall  try 


342  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

to  answer  it  as  regards  hunters.  The  usual  method  of  teach- 
ing a  horse  to  jump  by  getting  on  his  back  and  riding  him 
at  fences,  is  so  uncertain  in  its  results,  so  apt  to  give  rise 
to  an  accident,  and  so  liable  to  make  a  horse  fidgety,  if  not 
dangerously  impetuous,  that  owners,  especially  if  they  be 
breeders  and  dealers,  naturally  object  to  incurring  risks  which 
they  can  avoid,  or  which  they  can  make  over  to  the  pur- 
chasers of  their  animals.  The  addition  of  a  jumping  test 
would  therefore  greatly  decrease  the  number  of  exhibits  in 
the  hunter  classes,  which  are  accordingly  judged  solely  by 
their  conformation,  looks,  action  and  manners.  We  find, 
even  among  old  horses  which  are  exhibited  as  hunters,  total 
ignorance  of  one  of  the  most  essential  parts  of  their  work. 
I  feel  confident  that  if  the  method  to  which  I  have  previously 
alluded,  of  teaching  horses  to  jump  cleverly  before  they  were 
mounted  were  well  known,  the  objection  of  exhibitors  to  a 
jumping  test  would  speedily  vanish.  These  remarks  con- 
cerning horse  shows  in  no  way  apply  to  young  horses  sold 
as  hunters  at  Irish  fairs,  such  as  those  of  Ballinasloe  or 
Cahirmee,  where  sellers  are  always  ready  to  demonstrate  the 
ability  of  their  animals  to  '  throw  a  lep.'  Without  going  into 
any  details,  I  may  remark  that  the  jumping  education  of 
hunters  should  begin  before  they  are  older  than  two 
years. 

Remembering  the  intense  interest  with  which  the  Horse 
Show  at  Ball's  Bridge  was  regarded  by  all  classes  of  persons 
in  Dublin,  I  could  not  help  being  struck  with  the  apathy 
displayed  by  Londoners  about  the  May  Horse  Show  of  the 
Royal  Agricultural  Society  at  Islington.  This  great  annual 
event  in  the  English  horse  world  had  less  space  devoted 
to  it  in  the  advertisement  columns  of  the  daily  and  evening 
papers  than  any  of  the  theatres  or  principal  music  halls  ;  and 
those  organs  of  public  opinion  reported  its  proceedings  more 
poorly  than  they  did  the  doings  of  any  of  the  nightly  places 
of  amusement.  As  far  as  I  could  judge,  the  majority  of  the 
small  number  of  people  who  went  to  the  Agricultural  Hall 


A  Libel  Action.  343 

were  chiefly  country  visitors.  And  yet  this  was  the  one 
grand  yearly  occasion  afforded  to  Londoners  to  inspect  a 
large  variety  of  some  of  the  finest  horses  in  the  world.  I 
am  again  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  great  body  of 
Londoners,  and  I  might  add,  or  people  who  neither  ride 
nor  drive,  care  nothing  about  horses.  The  newsboys  who 
run  in  and  out  among  the  crowd,  hawking  their  evening 
papers,  show  their  knowledge  of  their  customers  by  shouting 
'Winner!  Winner!!'  Imagine  what  would  be  the  disgust 
of  the  average  purchaser  if,  instead  of  the  results  of  races, 
he  were  to  find  only  a  list  of  the  winners  at  the  Agricultural 
Hall! 

In  country  parts  of  England,  great  interest  is  taken  in 
horse  shows.  Judging  by  the  familiar  faces  which  invariably 
turn  up  at  the  Hall,  Cambridge,  Peterborough,  Liverpool, 
Leicester  and  other  places,  we  may  conclude  that  there  is 
a  small  body  of  enthusiasts  who  spend  all  their  time  at 
horse  shows,  or  in  looking  to  these  functions.  These  are 
the  people  whom  I  like  to  get  among,  and  talk  'horse* 
with  them. 

During  the  preceding  winter,  I  had,  greatly  to  my  surprise, 
been  served  with  a  writ  for  a  libel  action,  which  Mr  Sexton, 
alias  '  Professor '  Leon,  had  instituted  against  my  wife  for 
her  comments,  in  an  Indian  newspaper  for  which  she  used 
to  write,  on  Sexton's  horse-taming  show  at  the  Aquarium. 
She  had  listened  seriously  to  the  statements  made  concerning 
the  awful  depravity  and  wildness  of  the  '  crocks '  which  were 
brought  on  the  stage,  and  knowing  what  wild  and  vicious 
horses  really  were,  she  got  mad,  and  wrote  what  was  certainly 
a  libel.  Had  she  known  that  '  Leon,  the  Mexican  horse- 
tamer'  was  only  a  nom  de  theatre  ;  that  instead  of  being 
a  Mexican  horseman,  he,  Sexton,  was,  as  he  stated  at  the 
trial,  an  English  printer's  clerk  who  had  never  been  out  of 
the  United  Kingdom  ;  and  that  he  had  learned  the  '  system ' 
from  his  brother-in-law,  Galvayne,  she  would  have  smiled 
at  the  hyperbole  used,  and  would  have  applauded  Sexton 


344  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

for  not  giving  a  worse  show  than  he  did.  The  weak  point 
about  ladies  is  that  they  are  so  practical  that  when  a  man 
says  a  thing,  they  believe  him.  To  me  the  strange  thing 
about  this  trial  was  that  I,  who  was  as  ignorant  as  the  child 
unborn  about  what  my  wife  had  written,  should,  by  the  law 
of  tort  (cursed  be  the  inventor  of  it),  also  be  made  liable. 
The  principle  seems  wrong ;  although,  personally,  I  regard 
the  obligation  thus  imposed  as  an  honour. 

In  order  to  get  the  money  to  pay  the  '  damages/  we  took 
Gustave  to  Berlin  with  the  intention  of  making  it  by  horse- 
breaking  ;  but  the  time  of  our  arrival  (beginning  of  July)  was 
out  of  the  season,  and  I  could  find  no  one  who  took  any 
interest  in  the  art  of  giving  horses  good  manners  and  snaffle- 
bridle  mouths.  To  test  whether  there  was  any  chance  of 
being  able  to  get  up  a  class,  I  gave  a  free  performance  to 
some  of  the  officers  of  the  2d  Uhlan  Regiment  at  their 
barracks.  I  took  in  hand  a  horse  of  theirs  which  had  up  to 
that  time  always  refused  to  jump,  and  after  about  a  quarter 
of  an  hour's  work  with  the  long  reins,  I  made  him  obey  so 
effectually  that  when  ridden  by  one  of  the  gentlemen  present, 
he  jumped  kindly  several  obstacles  which  were  in  the  open 
school.  They  warmly  commended  this  way  of  driving  a 
horse  on  foot,  and  said  that  it  was  infinitely  better  than  their 
own  manner  of  lunging  a  horse  ;  but  they  had  no  desire  to 
learn.  I  then  showed  them  how  I  had  trained  Gustave  to 
walk,  trot,  canter,  gallop,  turn  and  halt  by  signal,  while  I  sat 
on  his  back  with  my  hands  in  my  pockets.  This  perform- 
ance on  the  part  of  the  grey  gelding  delighted  them  beyond 
measure,  and  they  all  said  :  lEr  geht  wie  ein  mensch '  (He  goes 
like  a  man),  which  is  the  highest  compliment  a  German  can 
pay  to  a  horse's  style  of  movement.  I  may  mention  that  I 
sold  Gustave  to  Graf  Magnis  of  this  regiment  for  a  great  deal 
more  than  I  had  paid  for  him.  I  am  glad  that  the  Count, 
who  is  a  fine  rider  and  greatly  admires  English  horse  methods, 
got  Gustave  ;  for  he  can  both  ride  and  appreciate  a  clever 
jumper.  The  transformation  from  an  over-worked  and  under- 


Berlin.  345 

fed  livery  hack  in  Paris,  into  one  of  the  most-admired  and 
best-cared-for  horses  in  Berlin,  must  have  been  a  happy  event 
in  the  life  of  the  amiable  grey  gelding. 

Berliner  Tattersall,  at  which  I  put  up  Gustave  at  the  very 
moderate  livery  of  35.  a  day,  is,  no  country  excepted, 
the  best  livery  stables  I  have  ever  seen.  The  feeding  and 
grooming  is  very  good,  and  the  owners  of  horses  which  are 
put  up  there,  are  allowed  the  use  of  two  immense  covered 
riding-schools  in  which  to  exercise  them.  There  is  a  restaur- 
ant attached  to  the  larger  manege,  round  which  there  is  a 
low  gallery  capable  of  holding  at  least  300  people.  The 
existence  of  these  tribunes,  which  are  free  to  the  public, 
gives  to  dealers  admirable  opportunities  for  '  showing '  horses 
to  intending  purchasers. 

The  German  seat  on  horseback,  according  to  the  precepts 
of  the  Vaterland,  is,  to  my  thinking,  singularly  artificial  and 
stiff,  and  is  consequently  insecure  for  the  rider  and  fatiguing 
for  the  horse  ;  but,  by  their  methods,  they  obtain  great  control 
over  their  animals.  Different  to  the  Germans,  the  English 
cavalry  ride  well ;  but  break-in  their  horses  badly.  If  any  of 
my  readers  desire  a  proof  of  the  inefficiency  of  our  military 
school  training,  they  will  obtain  a  striking  one  if  they  attend 
a  cavalry  review  and  observe  the  length  of  time  it  takes  a 
regiment  to  reform  after  a  charge. 

The  Thiergarten,  which  is  just  outside  Berlin,  is  an  exten- 
sive wood  and  pleasure  ground  through  which  there  are  miles 
upon  miles  of  beautifully  kept  drives  and  well  laid  down  rides. 
It  has  also,  near  the  Zoological  Gardens,  a  large  open  space, 
called  the  Hippodrome,  round  which  are  placed  a  few  small 
fences  for  the  use  of  the  hard-riding  public.  The  Thiergarten 
confers  on  Berlin  immense  facilities  for  riding,  superior  even 
to  those  which  are  enjoyed  by  Paris,  and  consequently  this 
exercise  is  extremely  popular  among  the  residents  of  the 
Prussian  capital.  Knowing  the  equestrian  scenes  which  may 
be  daily  witnessed  in  his  own  familiar  Rotten  Row,  an 
Englishman  might  think  that  the  riders  in  the  Thiergarten  are 


346  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

equally  wayward.  For  nearly  four  weeks  my  wife  and  I  rode 
every  day,  except  Sunday,  for  a  couple  of  hours  in  the  Thier- 
garten, and  although  we  met  on  each  occasion  a  large 
number  of  riders,  we  never  once  saw  a  horse  pulling  hard  or 
playing  up  in  any  way.  A  very  bad  place,  you,  my  readers, 
will  observe,  for  a  horsebreaker  to  go  to.  That  is  quite  true ; 
although,  had  I  been  given  a  chance,  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  the  plan  of  doing  in  a  month  what  it  takes  German 
breakers  two  or  three  years  to  accomplish,  would  have  been 
appreciated.  The  credit  of  the  good  manners  displayed  by 
the  horses  in  the  Thiergarten  was  due  to  the  excellence  of 
their  training,  for  the  ordinary  Berliner  would  as  soon  think 
of  mounting  a  tiger,  as  one  of  the  hard-mouthed  brutes  which 
we  are  accustomed  to  see  in  the  Row.  Hence,  to  sell  well  in 
Berlin,  a  saddle  horse  must  be  absolutely  '  confidential.'  I 
must  say  that  in  this  respect  Germans  display  a  large  amount 
of  sense  which  is  uncommon  in  England.  On  the  day  we 
arrived  at  Berlin,  we  met  Herr  Freitag,  who  is  a  German 
horse  dealer.  On  the  following  morning,  when  he  saw  my 
wife  ride  and  jump  Gustave  in  the  manege,  he  conceived  a 
great  respect  for  us,  and  as  he  had  five  or  six  Irish  horses  which 
he  had  lately  imported,  he  placed  them  at  our  disposal.  He 
even  offered  to  pay  half  our  expenses  if  we  would  stay  in 
Berlin  and  ride  his  horses  every  morning  ;  but  as  we  were 
staying  only  a  short  time  in  the  place,  wre  told  him  we  would 
be  glad  to  do  the  work  without  payment,  as  long  as  we  re- 
mained in  Berlin.  The  people  of  the  stable  were  greatly 
surprised  to  see  us  ride  these  comparatively  raw  horses  in 
the  open,  without  their  having  had  any  school  training.  We 
had  a  lot  of  pleasant  rides  with  Korn,  Freitag's  rough-rider,  in 
the  Thiergarten,  and  we  three  always  made  a  point  of  taking 
the  youngsters  over  the  jumps  in  the  Hippodrome.  In  this 
we  had  our  amusement  and  exercise  ;  and  Freitag  was  able 
to  sell  a  couple  of  the  animals  by  reason  of  my  wife  having 
been  seen  on  their  back.  The  purchaser  would  not  have  con- 
sidered this  a  guarantee  of  docility,  if  he  only  knew  the  class 


James  Fit  Us.  347 

of  horse  my  wife  had  been  accustomed  to  mount  during  our 
breaking  expeditions. 

While  we  were  in  Berlin  my  book,  The  Points  of  the 
Horse,  was  published.  With  its  appearance,  fifteen  years 
of  work  came  to  an  end.  I  am  content  to  have,  at  last,  a 
book  upon  which  I  can  rest  my  reputation,  and  am  thank- 
ful that  I  had  the  many  hundreds  of  pounds  which  I 
spent  in  getting  up  material  for  it.  Its  merits  have  had 
very  generous  recognition  from  the  press  and  also  from 
the  public.  The  Prince  of  Wales  was  graciously  pleased  to 
accept  a  copy,  and  I  have  had  from  the  Continent  several 
applications  to  purchase  the  right  of  translating  it. 

When  going  to  Berlin  we  made  the  mistake  of  travel- 
ling by  the  Flushing  route,  which  is  both  inconvenient  and 
expensive  for  horses.  The  best  way  would  have  been  by 
Hamburg;  for  though  the  sea  voyage  from  London  is 
rather  long,  it  is  cheap ,  arid  the  rail  journey  from  thence  to 
Berlin  is  only  about  80  miles  long.  We  returned  by  Ham- 
burg ;  as  we  wished  to  meet  Fillis,  who  was  performing 
there  in  Circus  Renz.  The  thin,  little  old  man  was  very 
chatty.  He  showed  us  his  great  school  horse  Germinal,  and 
another  which  he  had  in  training.  His  good  opinion  of  him- 
self was  amusing,  though  it  was  no  doubt  to  a  large  extent 
well  deserved.  His  contempt  was  great  for  all  other  school 
riders,  of  whom,  so  he  told  us,  he  was  the  god  in  public 
opinion.  I  must  say  that  as  far  as  I  know  and  have  heard, 
he  is  easily  first  Even  Baucher,  as  I  have  previously  de- 
scribed, was  not  sacred  to  this  sapeur.  The  mention  of  the 
name  of  M.  Barroil,  author  of  L'Art  Equestre,  made  him 
mad.  '  What  can  he  know  about  a  horse  ? '  said  Fillis.  '  He 
weighs  80  kilos.'  Alas !  I  thought,  how  prone  we  mortals 
are  to  take  credit  to  ourselves  for  natural  advantages.  Tread- 
ing still  further  on  dangerous  ground,  I  asked  him  about 
Baron  de  Vaux,  who,  I  believe,  is  the  horse  critic  of  Gil  Bias. 
'  He  abused  me  in  his  Ecuyers  et  Ecuyeresl  replied  the  famous 
Londoner;  'because  I  would  not  let  him  help  me  in  writing 


348  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

my  book.  I  wrote  it  all  myself.'  I  have  always  understood 
that  M.  Clemanceau,  the  late  French  deputy,  put  Fillis's  ideas 
into  words  ;  and  think  so  still.  Anyhow,  Les  Principes  de 
Dressage  et  d' Equitation  is  a  book  to  be  proud  of ;  although 
it  would  be  in  better  taste  if  Fillis  had  avoided  adversely 
criticising  in  its  pages,  the  books  of  other  authors  on  equita- 
tion savante,  to  wit,  those  of  Baucher  and  Barroil.  Ecuyers 
who  are  not  particularly  friendly  with  Fillis,  retort  that  in  his 
actual  breaking,  he  largely  employs,  to  obtain  many  of  his  airs, 
the  whip,  against  the  use  of  which  he  is  particularly  severe 
in  Les  Principes.  Fillis,  in  his  own  estimation,  is  infallible 
and  has  obtained  finality  in  his  art. 

When  we  saw  Fillis  enter  the  circus  on  the  back  of  the 
handsome  and  well-bred  Germinal,  we  forgot  his  faults  of 
phrase  and  manner,  and  reverently  acknowledged  that  we 
were  in  the  presence  of  a  great  master.  What  I  liked  most 
about  him  was  that  the  horse  walked  into  and  round  the 
ring  in  ordinary  style,  and  without  a  trace  of  excitement 
or  exaggerated  collection,  until  he  began  his  particular  turn 
or  act.  As  soon  as  he  had  finished  his  numero,  he  resumed 
his  placid  way  of  going,  which  showed  that  his  brilliancy 
was  not  the  result  of  his  having  been  recently  tortured. 
Germinal  was  supple,  light,  and  executed  all  his  movements 
with  admirable  precision,  and  with  entire  absence  of  fret- 
fulness.  In  fact,  he  appeared  to  work  by  the  indications  of 
the  hand  and  leg  and  not  by  the  irritation  of  the  spur. 
Fillis  was  more  *  starred '  on  the  programme  than  any  other 
performer  ;  a  fact  which  shows  how  highly  esteemed  clever 
circus  riders  are  on  the  Continent.  The  points  which  I  did 
not  like  about  his  riding  were  as  follows  : — (i)  His  seat 
was  inelegant ;  because  he  humped  his  back  and  worked  his 
body,  arms  and  legs  with  far  too  evident  effort  to  obtain 
effect  on  his  horse.  (2)  He  held  his  hands  too  close  together 
on  the  reins.  In  the  position  he  kept  them,  they  had  the 
appearance  of  those  of  a  man  who  is  trying  to  steer  a  boat 
with  both  hands  on  the  tiller.  (3)  He  held  his  hands  too 


Photo,  by  A.  F.  .Mackenzie,  Birnani,  AT.B, 


James  Fillis.  351 

high,  and  consequently  there  was  too  much  weight  on  the 
hind  legs  of  the  horse.  Yet  for  all  this,  he  made  his  horse 
do  more  than  I  have  ever  seen  any  other  high  school  animal 
perform. 

The  lightness  and  freedom  of  Germinal  was  in  singular 
contrast  to  the  wooden  movements  of  the  horses  ridden  by 
Herr  Wulff  when  I  saw  him  in  his  circus  at  Hengler's.  The 
Germans  seem,  in  obtaining  control  over  their  riding  horses, 
to  deprive  them  of  all  their  spirit,  and  their  animals,  as  a 
rule,  go  through  their  work  in  a  dead,  mechanical  manner. 
The  French,  on  the  contrary,  do  all  they  can  to  preserve 
the  fire  of  their  animals.  Among  the  former,  the  control  is 
that  of  the  breaker ;  among  the  latter,  that  of  the  rider. 

Fillis  did  each  night  about  ten  airs,  which  were  put  down 
in  the  programme,  so  that  one  could  follow  each  evolution. 
I  cannot  understand  why  those  high  school  riders  who  per- 
form in  circuses  in  England  do  not  grant  this  favour  to  their 
audience,  few  of  whom  have  any  acquaintance  with  this 
system  of  equitation. 

Although  Circus  Renz  is  the  best  one  I  have  ever  seen, 
its  programme  had  the  objectionable  item  of  two  rearers 
each  carrying  a  lady  on  an  ordinary  side-saddle,  while  these 
two  horses  walked  about  on  their  hind  legs.  The  feat  itself 
is  not  alone  opposed  to  all  principles  of  true  horsemanship  ; 
but  its  performance,  in  this  case,  was  nothing  short  of  a 
crime,  in  that  it  placed  two  women  in  a  position  of  danger 
out  of  which  they  could  not  escape  if  anything  went  wrong. 
Herr  Renz  is  no  doubt  aware  that  poor  Emilie  Loisset,  an 
exceptionally  brilliant  ecuyere,  was  killed  at  the  Cirque  d'Hiver 
in  1882  by  a  rearer  falling  back  on  her. 

After  staying  a  few  days  at  Hamburg  in  order  to  study 
Fillis  and  Germinal,  we  returned  to  England,  where  I  finished 
this  book  :  gave  a  lecture  to  the  Society  of  Arts  on  the  Horse 
from  an  Artistic  Point  of  View,  and  one  to  the  Walsall  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  on  Horses  and  Saddles  ;  showed  my  photo- 
graphs of  horses  to  the  Photographic  Society  of  Great  Britain 


352  Among  Men  and  Horses. 

and  at  the  Royal  Institution,  and  settled  down  at  Melton 
Mowbray. 

On  a  recent  trip  to  Rugby  in  search  of  a  smart  pony 
for  a  friend,  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  Mr  E.  D. 
Miller,  whom  I  knew  in  India  when  he  was  in  the  I7th 
Lancers.  He  and  his  brother  keep  a  large  stable  of  polo 
ponies  for  sale  at  Spring  Hill  and  break  them  in  their 
riding-school  and  polo  ground.  They  generally  have  about 
fifty  ponies  of  the  highest  class.  I  may  mention  that  the 
ideal  pony  is  a  dwarf-hunter  and  as  well  bred  as  possible. 
Practically  speaking  these  animals  are  to  be  found  only 
in  Ireland.  Mr  Miller  played  in  the  winning  team  at  Meerut 
for  the  Cavalry  Cup  in  1888  and  1889,  and  also  at  the 
Calcutta  Tournament  in  the  same  years.  Finding  on  the 
return  of  the  I7th  Lancers  that  'soldiering'  was  not  as 
pleasant  at  home  as  in  India,  he  joined  his  brother,  who 
in  1891  had  started  the  Spring  Hill  business.  They  began 
by  trying  a  little  dealing  in  hunters  ;  but  soon  gave  it  up 
in  favour  of  polo  ponies.  Their  great  success  has  been 
due  to  careful  selection  and  thorough  good  breaking.  Two 
years  ago  they  started  a  polo  club  and  had  last  year  a  polo 
tournament  in  which  eight  teams  competed,  among  them 
being  those  of  the  I4th  Hussars,  Inniskilling  Dragoons,  and 
county  teams.  Since  the  3ist  of  last  March,  they  have 
been  playing  three  days  a  week.  Their  busiest  months 
for  play  are  April,  July,  August  and  September,  when 
the  London  season  is  not  on  and  people  are  not  playing 
at  Hurlingham.  Rugby  is  so  centrally  placed  that  they 
get  players  from  all  parts.  Lord  Shrewsbury  and  Cap- 
tain Daly  come  from  Stafford ;  Lord  Harrington  and  Mr 
Gerald  Hardy,  from  Derby ;  Captain  Renton,  from  Liver- 
pool ;  Mr  Nichalls  (i/th  Lancers),  from  Preston  ;  Mr  Burnaby, 
from  Leicester ;  Mr  Cartland,  from  Birmingham ;  and  many 
others  from  different  places.  They  have  consequently  made 
Rugby  the  great  Midland  centre  for  polo. 

Thanks  to  the  kindness  of  Mr  Scarth  Dixon,  the  author 


Melton  Mowbray.  353 

of  that  delightful  book  In  The  North  Countrie,  I  have  lately 
had  an  instructive  and  pleasant  trip  to  Yorkshire,  where  I 
went  with  *  The  British  Yeoman '  of  The  Sporting  Times  to 
study  Cleveland  bays,  Yorkshire  coach  horses,  and  Yorkshire 
hackneys,  and  to  take  photographs  of  the  best  types  for  The 
Points  of  the  Horse.  Among  other  good  men,  I  was  lucky 
to  meet  Mr  John  Lett  of  Rillington  and  Mr  Mitchell  of 
Eccleshill.  Mr  Lett  is  a  large  breeder  of  all  classes  of  horses  ; 
is  a  well-known  judge  at  horse  shows  ;  a  great  exporter  ;  and 
was  the  pioneer  of  the  American  trade  in  Cleveland  bays. 
Mr  Mitchell  devotes  himself  chiefly  to  Yorkshire  hackneys, 
and  is  the  owner  of  that  beautiful  horse  and  champion, 
Ganymede,  for  whom  he  paid  2000  guineas.  He  is  also  a 
great  breeder,  judge,  and  exporter.  Mr  Dixon  initiated  the 
movement  that  resulted  in  the  formation  of  the  Cleveland 
Bay  Society,  for  which  he  was  secretary  for  ten  years.  He, 
like  his  friends  Mr  Lett  and  Mr  Mitchell,  is  an  enthusiastic 
fox-hunter.  It  was  not  their  fault  if  I  came  away  from 
Yorkshire  without  knowing  something  about  the  horses  of 
the  *  county  of  broad  acres.' 

Under  the  difficulty  of  having  to  ride  anything  we  could 
get  without  money,  in  exchange  for  the  risky  work  of '  making ' 
'  green '  horses  clever,  we  had  enough  of  hunting  last  season 
to  show  us  that  the  sport  in  Leicestershire  cannot  be  sur- 
passed. A  Friday  with  Lord  Lonsdale  and  Tom  Firr  will 
satisfy  the  hardest  man  to  hounds ;  and  Lord  Edward 
Manners  and  Gillard  may  be  safely  trusted  not  to  lead 
the  ladies  into  danger.  Lord  Lonsdale  on  behalf  of  the 
Quorn  and  the  Duke  of  Rutland  with  respect  to  the  Belvoir, 
foster  the  true  interests  of  hunting  by  their  kindness  and 
consideration  to  the  farmers,  even  more  than  by  their  profuse 
liberality.  The  Cottesmore,  hunted  by  Mr  Baird,  has  a 
corner  of  its  district,  like  the  Quorn  and  Belvoir,  touching 
Melton  Mowbray,  which  is  consequently  the  best  hunting 
centre  in  England.  The  *  hunting  people '  are  wealthy  birds  of 
passage,  among  whom  there  is  a  small  percentage  of  fine  horse- 

Z 


354  A  mong  Men  and  Horses. 

men.  This  proportion  is  of  course  lowered  by  the  fact  that 
hunting  at  Melton  Mowbray  is  a  fashionable  function.  Being 
a  stranger  without  friends  to  puff  or  foes  to  ignore  I  would  in 
no  way  wish  to  make  invidious  distinctions ;  but  cannot  help 
saying  that  the  man  who  wins  my  admiration  by  the  way 
in  which  he  gets  over  a  big  country  is  Colonel  Forester,  who, 
well  on  in  the  seventies,  goes  as  straight  as  the  best  of  them. 
The  riding  of  the  ladies  is  beyond  all  praise.  For  their  numbers, 
there  are  far  fewer  '  hard  funkers '  among  them,  than  among 
the  men.  My  readers  will  think  that  I  ought  at  last  to  be 
happy.  Well,  I  don't  quite  know  about  that.  English 
people  in  their  own  country  are  so  different  to  the  soldiers, 
sailors,  planters  and  colonials  among  whom  I  have  spent 
the  best  years  of  my  life,  that  I  catch  myself  every  now  and 
then  regretfully  looking  at  the  old  breaking-bag,  saddle-box 
and  trunk,  and  thinking  of  foreign  lands  where  we  have  always 
found  a  welcome.  Melton  Mowbray  is  a  bad  place  for  a 
veterinary  surgeon  to  invade ;  for  it  already  possesses  an 
admirable  one  in  Mr  Goodall,  who  is  also  a  fine  horseman, 
and  a  very  pleasant  companion.  After  we  have  brought 
out  some  fresh  editions  and  two  or  three  new  books  we  have 
in  preparation,  I  think  we  shall  flit  once  again  to  a  country 
where  the  people,  to  accept  us,  will  not  require  us  to  have 
been  born  in  the  place  and  to  have  at  least  as  much  money 
as  themselves.  If  we  do  so,  I  may  be  able  to  narrate  some 
further  experiences  among  men  and  horses. 


INDEX  TO  NAMES. 


ABBOTT,  Mr  Harry,  182 
Abdool  Ray  man,  60 
Abrams,  Mr  Harry,  145 
Ali  bin  Abdoola,  60 
All  Pasha  Shereef,  139 
Allen,  Mr,  71,  72 
Allen,  Mr  Fred.,  325 
Anderson,  Colonel  Joe,  63 
Artin  Bey,  139 
Ashe,  Mr  Edwin,  218 
Astley,  Captain,  208,  209 

Mr,'  271 

Mr  John,  209 

Sir  John,  15 

Ayres  (the  cricketer),  218 

BAILEY.  Charlie,  56 

Baird,  Mr,  353 

Baker,  Colonel  Valentine,  138,  139 

Barber,  Mr  Hilton,  229 

Barnato,  Mr  Barny,  269 

Barroil,  M.,  27,  347 

Barry,  Mr  Dick,  12 

Bates,  Captain,  126 

Baucher,  27,  308 

Bay  ley,  Captain  John,  23 

Beatty,  Mr,  179 

Beaver,  Colonel  P.  K.,  187 

Bedford,  Duke  of,  12 1 

Bendoff,  Wolf,  270 

Benson,  Colonel,  116 

Beresford,  Captain,  127 

Lord  Marcus,  66 

Lord  William,  119,  197 

Berkeley,  Mr  Stanley,  68 
Elaine,  Sir  Seymour,  91 
Blew,  Mr,  74 
Bon,  Dr  Le,  304 
Bonamicci,  Mr,  266 
Bradford,  Sir  Edward,  47 
Brann,  Mr,  218 
Brett,  Mr,  191 
Brine,  General  Fred.,  19 
Brixen,  Captain  Axen  von,  172 


Brockwell  (the  cricketer),  218 
Brown,  General  '  Begorra,'  24 

—  Mr  J.  H.  Oswald,  95,  97 
J.  Moray,  298 

-  Mr  Tom,  87 

—  Professor,  73 
Buckridge,  Mr,  263 
Buffalo  Bill,  45 
Burnaby,  Mr,  352 
Bush,  Mr,  162 
Butler,  Mr,  172 
Butters,  Mr,  266 

CAMBRIDGE,  Duke  of,  339 
Carew,  Colonel  Pole,  213 
Cartland,  Mr,  352 
Cartouche,  48 
Charlton,  Mr  John,  96 
Chatterton  (the  cricketer),  218 
Chesham,  Lord,  132 
Clemanceau,  M.,  348 
Cole,  Mr  Comyns,  74 
Coleman,  Mr  Fatty,  69 
Colley,  General,  287 
Colville,  Mr,  138 
Cumbermere,  Lord,  126 
Cooke,  Colonel,  115 
Corlett,  Mr  John,  88 
Couper,  J.  R.,  269 
Crookenden,  Major,  137 
Curtis,  Mr  Ben,  276 
Cuthbert,  Mr,  293 

DALLAS,  Mr  Barnes,  160 
Daly,  Captain,  352 
Dann,  Major,  131 
Davis,  Mr  Oliver,  291 
Deerfoot,  18 
Detring,  Mr,  172 
Dilke,  Lady,  336 
Dirom,  Mr,  187 
Dixon,  Mr  Scarth,  352 
Donaldson,  Mr,  266 
Dowie,  Miss,  336 


356 


Index  to  Names. 


Dubarry,  Madame,  48 
Dufferin,  Lady,  120 

—  Lord,  119,  120 
Dwarf  of  Blood,  179 

EDINBURGH,  Duchess  of,  138 

—  Duke  of,  138 
Edwards,  Dr,  223 
Elliott,  Colonel  Locke,  114 

FALLON,  109 

Fermoy,  Lord,  II 

Ferris,  Mr  J.,  218 

Fillis,  Frank,  116,  201,  257 

—  James,  304,  308,  331,  347-351 
Firr,  Tom,  353 

Fitzgerald,  Captain,  136 
Fitz  Henry,  Mr,  172 
Fleming,  Dr,  63,  215 
Fordham,  George,  325 
Forester,  Colonel,  353 
Fotheringhame,  Mr  George,  269 
Frank,  no 
Freitag,  Herr,  346 

GALVAYNE,  Mr,  101 
Galway,  Mr  Payne,  263 
Garnet,  Major,  221 
Gascard,  Mr,  187 
Gerard,  Balthazar,  48 
Gidney,  Mr,  187 
Gillard,  353 
Goater,  Jim,  88 
Gofton,  Mr,  219 
Gooch,  Mr  F.  V.,  322 

—  George,  203 
Goodall,  Mr,  354 
Goss,  Joe,  31 
Grey,  Mr  Cecil,  112 
Grenfell,  General,  138 
Gubbins,  Mr  Nathaniel,  88 
Guthrie,  Mr,  223 

HAES,  Mr  Frank,  217 
Hailey,  Mr  Clarence,  218 
Hammond,  Mr  John,  87 
Hampson  and  Scott,  332 
Hancock,  Arthur,  207 
Har board,  The  Hon.  Walter,  91 
Harding,  Charlie,  206 
Hardy,  Joe,  207 

—  Mr  Gerald,  352 

—  Mr  Hay  wood,  96 
Harrington,  Lord,  352 
Hawkes,  Mr  George,  3 

—  Mr  Quail,  4 
Hayes,  Bill,  202 


Hayes,  George,  12 

—  James,  12 
Hearne,  Alec.,  218 

—  G.  G.,  218 

Jack,  218 

Henderson,  Dr,  195 
Hess,  Mr  Jack,  281 
Homan,  Mr,  234 
Horgan,  Mr  Dan,  21 
Horton,  Mr  Fred,  339 
Hudson,  Mr  Tommy,  206 
Hughes,  Captain  Gordon,  235 
Humphries,  Mr  J.  D.,  157 

IRVING,  Dr,  172 

—  Jack,  41 
Mr,  339 

JACKSON,  the  American  Deer,  18 
Jardine,  Sir  Robert,  156 
Jarvis,  Mr  W.,  87 
Jenny,  Mile.,  136 
Joe,  no,  315 
Jones,  Captain,  69 
Joubert,  General,  283 
Joy,  Captain  George,  91 

KEKEWICH,  Major,  138 

Kelly,  285 

Kerouse,  Mr,  194 

Kinchant,  Colonel,  76 

King,  Mr  Harold,  112 

Kingsland,  Dan,  211 

Kipling,  Mr  Rudyard,  121,  184 

Knolles,  Mr  Tom,  6 

Korn,  346 

Kruger,  Mr,  172 

LAMBTON,  Mr,  138 
Landsley,  Mr,  339 
Lansdown,  Lord,  43 
Lanyon,  Sir  Owen,  290 
Larpent,  Mr,  126    ' 
Lead,  Jack,  31 
Lehmann,  Mr,  172 
Leon,  313,  343 
Lett,  Mr  John,  353 
Levitt,  Jack,  17 
Lincoln,  Frank,  206 
Lindo,  Miss,  130 
Livingstone,  47 
Lloyd,  Mr,  179 
Loch,  Sir  Henry,  221 
Loisset,  Emilie,  351 
Lonsdale,  Lord,  353 
Lynx,  Captain,  66 
Lyons,  Colonel  Sam,  130 


Index  to  Names. 


357 


Lyons,  Mr,  223 

MACDOUGAL,  Major  'Ding,'  116 
Machell,  Captain,  15 
Macklin,  Mr,  187 
Maitland,  Mr  Kelly,  162-164 
Malitte,  Mr,  203 
Malone,  Barney,  285 
Manners,  Lord  Edward,  353 
Margarett,  Steve,  43,  187 
Marryatt,  Captain,  15 
Martin,  Edwin,  74 
George,  18 

-  William,  74,  157 

(the  cricketer),  218 

Maud,  Captain,  289 
M'Leod,  Mr  Jimmy,  124 
Medland,  Mr,  218 
Meiring,  Mr,  284 
Michie,  Mr,  172 
Miles,  Mr,  223 

Miley,  Mickie,  203 
Miller,  Mr  E.  D.,  352 
Mitchell,  Mr,  353 

Sir  Charles  and  Lady,  293 

Moore,  Mr  Garratt,  79,  81 

Mr  J.  H.,  79,  81,  126, 

Mr  W.  H.,  79,  81 

Morley,  Colonel,  65 
Morton,  Colonel,  115 

-  Mr,  74 
Moss,  Dave,  271 
Mullins,  Bat,  33 
Murdoch,  Mr  W.,  218 
Myers,  Mr,  23 

NICHALLS,  Mr,  352 

Nickless,  286 

Nolan,  Joe,  29 

Norman,  Mr  and  Mrs  Henry,  336 

Nott,  Major,  218 

O'CALLAGHAN,  Colonel,  221 

O'Connor,  Mr  T.  P.,  22 
October,  228,  273,  294 
Orellana,  Mr,  77 
Owen,  Mr  E.  M.,  136 

PATTON,  Captain  Aubrey,  16 
Payne,  Mr  George,  210 

—  Mr  Phil.,  293 
Petly.Mr,  287    ' 
Playfair,  Sir  Lyon,  46 
Porter,  Mr  John,  132 
Pougher  (the  cricketer),  218 
Prince  of  Wales,  132,  347 
Pritchard,  Rev.  Mr,  77 


Pudney,  Jim,  31 
QUAIN,  Mr,  19 

RAABE,  Captain,  27 
Raafe,  Mr,  233 
Radcliff,  Mr  Joe,  70 
Rarey,  100,  101,  119,  146 
Raux,  M.,  305,  309 
Rattray,  Mr  Grey,  271 
Reid,  Miss  Nellie,  128,  129 

Mr  W.  W., 

Young,  20 

Remmington,  Mr,  112 
Renton,  Captain,  352 
Rhodes,  Mr  Cecil,  235 
Richardson,  Bill,  29 
Rietz,  Mr,  233 
Riviere,  Mr  Briton,  96 
Roberts,  Colonel  Ben,  56 
—  Lord,  119,  120,  289 
Robertson,  Mr  Alec.,  234 

—  Professor,  63 
Robinson,  Mr  Kay,  71,  72 

Mr  Phil.,  71 

Roche,  The  Hon.  Ulick,  11 

Miss  Johanna,  12 

Rockwell,  227 

Russell,  General  Sir  Baker,  317 

Lord  Herbrand,  121 

Rustem  Pasha,  47 
Rutland,  Duke  of,  353 

SADLER,  Joe,  31 

Mr  Alf,  87 

Sample,  Professor,  100,  128,  213,  226, 

312 

Sampson,  Colonel,  in 
Sanson,  48 

Sar  Firaz  Hussain,  123 
Scott,  Mr,  335 
Sassoon,  Mr  D.  E.,  162 
Sealy,  Mr  Allen,  96 
Shaw,  Captain  Barnard,  12 

Mr  Vero,  298 

Sheikh  Esa  bin  Curtas,  60,  61 
Shepstone,  Sir  Theophilus,  289 
Sherwin,  Miss  Amy,  184 
Sherwood,  Mr  R.,  157 
Shifter,  The,  91 
Shipley,  Mr,  179 
Shrewsbury,  Lord,  352 
Sinnet,  Mr  A.  P.,  71 
Skrene,  Mr,  179 
Smith,  C.,  19 

Mr  Fraser,  158 

*  Professor '  Norton,  297 


358 


Index  to  Names. 


Sonnenherg,  Mr,  272 . 
Sorel,  M.  Charles,  304 
Stevens,  Mr  John,  187,  192 
St  Quintin,  Colonel,  187 
Streeter,  Miss,  130 
Sturgess,  Mr  John,  81 
Swaine,  Colonel,  231,  292 
Symonds,  Tom,  29 

TAN  NEE,  Dr,  21 

—  Major,  21 
Tautz,  Messrs  E.,  332 
Taylor,  Mr  John,  15 
Thou,  De,  48 
Townsend,  Mr,  94 
Travers,  Bob,  31 
Treasure,  The,  127 
Truter,  Mr  Hendrik,  291 
Turnbull,  General  Monty,  60 

VAUX,  Baron  de,  347 
Vernon,  Mr,  219 
Vezin,  Mr  Hermann,  131 
Vikar  ul  Umra,  123 

WALES,  Prince  of,  132,  347 


Wallace,  Captain,  235 
Waller,  Mr  Sam,  96 
Warburton,  Colonel  Fred.j  22 
Ward,  Charlie,  321 
—  Frank,  321 

Miss  Genevieve,  219 

Wardropp,  General,  116 
Watson,  Mr  Alfred,  68 
Webling,  Mr,  68 
Weekes,  Teddy,  193 
Westminster,  Duke  of,  132 
White,  Sir  George,  121 
Williams,  Mr  Blundell,  213 

—  of  Tempe,  Mr,  233 

Professor,  61,  63,  64 

Wilson,  Mr,  237 

Wilton,  Mr,  334 

Wimble,  Mr  Fleming,  223 

Wood,  General  Sir  Evelyn,  287,  317 

--  Harry  (cricketer),  218 
Woodyear,  Mr,  206 
Wulff,  Herr,  351 

YORK,  Duke  of,  138 
ZIERVOGEL,  Mr.  283 


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